Kuraku
by Hy-Brit
Summary: [Chap 9 finally up] AU! They're young and slowly grow up together. what happens when Iruka's parents die? more dramatic changes will occur, but I won't say which... gna gna... evil laughThis is an IruXKaka so keep your guards up for yaoi! I suck at summar
1. Chap 1 How a close friendship begins

A/N:  
Hi

I'm **Kakashiluver**, the author of this story, and the Beta-reader is **Vicious-Loner**. (Thank you so much Vicious!)

The story is a Kakashi X Iruka, but I promise you it won't the usual KakaXRuru get together... gna gna... misterious and naughty laugh

now, Since they're both men, this is my official yaoi warning sign: "WATCH IT PEOPLE! YAOI HERE!"

I've warned you, don't any of you dare to throw any abusing reviews at me about it.

that was all I had to say except for: hope you enjoy the story as much as I do writing it :D and I hope you'll review!

PS: I don't like writing disclaimers all over my story so here just goes one that's responsible for the whole story:

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Kakashi or Iruka…otherwise I'd be a very, very tired little girl… MHUHAHAHA laughs evilly… SO GET LOST STUPID LAWYERS!… not that I have any money anyway…

PSS: also a lil' contest -well contest is the wrong word since there was nothing to win except for my eternal thanks- has gone on around here about how I would call my fic, and I pickedthe name: Kuraka, like the stories name also is now...Duh... it's thought up by **NarutoSasuke4evr** (congrats on winning my eternal thanks :D)  
but this was just some side info which is actually not very important to the story at all ;P

Kuraku

Chapter 1:

How a close friendship begins

"Watch out!" a ball shot right by the head of a little boy, who had turned his head just in time to look in the direction of the shout and therefore managed to escape a bump on his head. He saw the ball flying by his head, it startled him and he fell back, landing on his behind.

The boy had long brown hair, which coloured perfect with his shy brown eyes. He was wearing a white shirt, navy blue shorts and dark coloured sneakers. He was about six and his cheeks reddened quickly when a group of other boys came to stand around him too look if he was alright.

"Sorry" one of the boys apologised "Are you okay?"

He was probably only a few years older than the shy boy, but looked much more mature. The two boys didn't really have different heights as they were about the same length, but by face the two differed a lot. The boy who had apologised was wearing dark jeans and sneakers, which contrasted nicely with the light blue of his shirt.

His hair had the weird colour of light grey, one could almost call it silver, and it spiked up in a messy way. His facial expression was pretty laid-back, making him loo like he didn't really cared about the answer he would get from the boy the ground.

"I'm okay, thank you" the boy said blushing and stood up.

Most of the boys walked back to their playing ground, but the boy with the silver hair stayed and watched the other boy brush the dust of his clothes. He held out his hand. The boy with the brown hair looked at it a bit surprised, but shook it anyway.

"Your new here, aren't you? I'm Hatake Kakashi, what's your name?" he asked and his eyes curled up into a pair of curves, smiling friendly at the little stranger.

"My name's Umino Iruka, I've just moved to this village. I'm from a big city far away" the shy boy answered, there was a peaceful silence between the two little boys.

But the silence was soon broken by a call "Oi Kakashi, you coming or not?" the boys on the playing grounds were standing impatiently, watching their friend with anticipation.

"Yeah, I'm coming!" he yelled back at them, not breaking the eye contact he had with this new boy "You wanna play with us?" he asked.

Iruka looked up to the sky, the twilight was already beating the beautiful warm day that they all have had the privilege to witness and the boy sadly looked back at Kakashi.

"Sorry, I can't. My mom said I had to be home before sunset" he answered.

"Oh, okay. Well, I'll see you around then!" Kakashi said and ran back to his waiting friends.

As Iruka began walking back to his new home, the other boys started playing their game again.

Back at his home, he kicked his shoes out and entered the house.

"Mom, dad, I'm home!" he called.

"Good honey, you're just in time for dinner!" his mom called back from their new kitchen.

He ran in the kitchen, hugged his mother and began helping his mother setting everything up for dinner.

His mother also had brown hair and the same colour eyes as her son. She looked absolutely beautiful, and even more beautiful when you considered her age. She was in her mid forties, but looked like she was in the prime of her life.

"Where's dad?" he asked as he set the hot bowls full of ramen on their low table

"He's upstairs, he's still moving boxes downstairs. By the way, did you have a nice day?" his mother asked him.

"Yes, I've met a boy and he seems really nice, he asked me to play with some ball game, but the sun was almost setting so I couldn't play with them"

"Ha-ha, your such a good boy. Next time you can play one game" she laughed a little.

"But you told me I had to be home before sunset" he asked a bit confused.

"I know, but ten minutes later than sunset wouldn't make that big of a difference, you don't always have to be so strict to what I say" she smiled sweetly at her little boy.

They had just finished setting everything up for dinner when Iruka's dad entered the kitchen.

"Hey! Wow, that looks great!" he said smiling looking at the table full of food.

"Daddy!" Iruka said and ran up to his dad for a hug.

Iruka was lifted in two strong arms and was set in the neck of his father.

He settled himself so he sat nice and ordered his dad to walk towards the table.

His dad sat down and lifted his son from his neck on his own sitting place. Iruka's dad was heavy boned and really muscular, but his face was almost always set on a friendly smile. He had oily black hair, pitch-black eyes and dark tanned skin.

Iruka himself had gotten about the same amount of traits from his mom and dad. He had the same fragile face structure, eyes and hair colour as his mother had and now he had long hair, it made him look quite like a girl. His hair was long enough to wear it in a ponytail, but he just couldn't get used to the tight feeling he got from it, but wore it in a ponytail more often than not anyways.

His skin was tanned, but was still lighter than his dad's. His body was also pretty broad, especially for the toddler he was, but he wasn't really heavy boned like his father was, and so with all these trait marks he looked really cute.

They ate slowly, all telling what they had done that day. And when they finally finished, Iruka had to go strait to bed. In two days the summer vacation would be over and every kid in the little village had to go back to school. Even though Iruka was new, he still had to go back to school again, a new school.

Iruka stripped from his normal clothes, washed himself, dressed up in his pyjamas, brushed his teeth and laid down in his bed.

His father and mother came in and both kissed him goodnight.

"Mom?" he asked when his mother was about to leave his room.

"Will you tell me a one of your tales?" he asked sweetly.

She smiled and walked towards her little boy again. "Okay, but only if you promise to go to sleep after it"

"I promise" his mom sat down on the side of his mattress and began her story.

"There once was-"

"You always begin like that" he interrupted

"I know that's just the way all those stories begin, but who's telling the story here?"

"You are"

"I am, so just be quiet and listen to me" she said smiling and began her story again, "There once was a very handsome little prince. This little prince was playing outside one day and met this really strange, but beautiful girl. She was wearing very dirty clothes and was talking to flowers. The prince and his friends looked weirdly at her and the prince's friends began to tease her about her clothes and the way she acted. The little prince didn't say anything. He thought the girl was a bit weird, but he thought it wouldn't be nice to tease her about it. He didn't have the courage to stop his friends though, because he was afraid they would tease him too. He didn't know the girl too well to dare to risk his friendship with the others. Back at his castle everyone told him to stay away from her. They said she was nothing more than a poor wanderer who had gone crazy. The next day the prince ignored everything what was said to him and said 'hello' to the girl. She looked up surprised and sadly down again.

'Are you going to tease me too?' she asked the prince.

'Of course I'm not going to do that' he said 'I just wanted to ask if you would want to play with me?' The girl looked up even more surprised than she did before and when she noticed that the prince was telling the truth, her eyes watered a bit from happiness. The two played the whole day and when they had to go home they promised each other to meet up the next day again. It went on like that for almost a week, the prince learned that the girl was really nice and that he was falling in love. One day his other friends saw them and they ran up to the playing couple. They asked him what the he was doing with the poor girl and he answered that they were playing. The friends laughed at this, 'Why would you play with HER?' one of his friends asked and, 'She's poor, dirty and crazy!' another boy said. This made the prince angry and he yelled, 'You don't even try to get to know her a little better, cause if you did you would've noticed that she is really nice!' the girl felt so great, it was the first time anyone had stood up for her.

'So what if she's poor, that doesn't makes her a monster, and so what if she talks to flowers, it's only because she's so lonely! How can you guys judge someone on their appearance, especially when you know they can't make themselves look any better then they already do!' the prince yelled again and after what the prince said, they felt really guilty. All the friends apologised and the big group went out to buy the most beautiful pieces of clothing for the girl, just to make it up. The girl got dressed in the clothing at the castle and when she got out of the room where she had changed, she looked absolutely gorgeous. All the friends looked in awe and the servants called everyone in the castle to gather to see the beautiful girl. Everyone was so surprised to find out that the girl before them was the once dirty, poor and crazy girl. The girl got permission to live in the castle for as long as she wanted. When both of the prince and the girl grew up together, they got married and lived long and happy for the rest of their lives. The end" mother finished her story like all her stories had ended and Iruka yawned.

"You're tired, go to sleep sweetie, maybe you'll see that other boy tomorrow again" she smiled while she stroke his long hair from his face.

"I hope so, but I still don't get why the prince liked her so much, why did he fall in love with her?" Iruka yawned again

"So what you're actually asking is what falling in love is, aren't you?" her smile turned into a mysterious mischievous one and Iruka nodded in anticipation.

"Well how can I explain, falling in love is… falling in love is a feeling you get when you like someone special. You try to be extra nice towards that person and every time you see or think about that person you feel really funny and happy. The only thing you want is to be with that person and to make that persons' dreams come true. When that person has also fallen in love with you, you feel on top of the world and the only thing who can pull you off it is that person itself. And if you truly love that person from the bottom of your heart, you would give anything up for that person" his mother ended in a soft voice.

"And what if that person doesn't falls in love with you?"

"Then you'll feel really miserable, but trust me, you'll get over her and you'll probably fall in love with someone else again. The only one who can heal a broken heart is time, but you should cherish every memory about that person, cause you can use it when a new love comes in your life. Then you know what you should and shouldn't do to drive that person closer to you" she said wisely. "But, it's already way past your bedtime" she tucked him in, stroke a few last hair locks from his face, kissed his forehead and went out.

"Goodnight mom!" Iruka called just before she closed the door.

_I wonder how it feels… falling in love…_ and with this last thought he fell in a deep sleep.


	2. Chap 2 When rain falls

Kuraku

Chapter 2:

When rain falls

The next day Iruka stood up, showered, dressed up and had breakfast before going back to the playing field. When he got there only a few bigger kids were playing there, so he decided to wander around the village a bit. It was just to get to know the village a little better.

He first walked through a narrow alley and came upon a big main street. Everywhere he looked he saw little shops and stands. It all looked really cosy and inviting. The street was very busy and crowded and all over the street happy laughs could be heard. Iruka slowly walked through the crowded street and looked through about every shop-window. There were shops that were selling antiques, or clothes, although most of the stands were selling food and candy. Above the laughter he heard salesmen shout out their products and more advertisement about other articles.

He had already been walking for a few hours or some when he suddenly heard his name. He first ignored it, nobody but his parents knew him, he must've heard it wrong.

"Oi Iruka-kun, wait up!" he finally looked up and saw Kakashi run up to him

He had already totally forgotten about him, of course Kakashi knew his name, they had introduced each other yesterday, how stupid of him to forget.

"Hey, what're you doing here?" he asked as he came to walk next to the younger boy

"I was looking around the village a bit, I don't even know where the school is yet" Iruka answered happily

"If you like, I'll show it to you" Kakashi offered

"Yeah, that'll be great" Iruka got exited, but his stomach disagreed with it by letting out a loud grumble, wanting everyone within earshot to know that Iruka was really hungry

Kakashi chuckled. "Hehe, I think it'll be better to give you a tour after lunch. We can get something to eat at one of the stands" he pointed towards a few stands were they could get some food

"But… I don't have any money with me…" Iruka told Kakashi sadly

"That's okay, I have, it's my treat" he said generous and already began walking towards a little ramen stand

"Alright, but I'll pay you back" Iruka quickly followed

They ate slowly and talked much. When they were finished they began walking towards the school. Iruka was told that there was only one elementary-school in the village so he didn't had to explain to Kakashi which school it was.

They first took an alley left from them, which ended in a long and narrow street, with old decorated houses. They walked a few hundred meters and took another left turn, then a right, another left and that was when they stood before a huge building.

A big sign was placed on right of the entrance gate with the words 'Elementary School Sakaki' on it. ((sacred tree))

"This is it, The Sakaki" Kakashi said and looked at the huge building "I'm being taught here too"

"Cool… in which grade are you going to be?" Iruka asked, when the summer vacation would be over he would be in the third grade.

"In the fourth grade, I'm seven now, but on fifteenth of September I'll turn eight. What about you, how old are you?"

"I've just turned six on the twenty-sixth of May, so it'll be my third year on an elementary school"

"How was your last year anyway?" Kakashi asked

"Good, I had a lot of friends and I learned much" Iruka looked down a little sadly, he still had flows of homesickness sometimes.

It had been a little more than a month since he had moved from his former home. His parents thought a big city wasn't good for his health, both physical and mental. It was always so stressed, busy and chaotic there. His father found a nice full-time job in the neighbourhood, and so did his mom and it wasn't long before movers stood in front of their door to load everything in their truck. His father's new job contained much paperwork and he said he had to sell large amounts of clothing to big marketing companies. His mother had found a part-time job at the local florist's. She had a natural talent in ikebana and mastered the art when she was still very young. ((the art of flower arrangement))

The family Umino wasn't really rich, nor were they really poor. They didn't really cared about it anyway, they were really happy and they thought that that was all what mattered.

Kakashi's parents on the other hand were completely different. His father was only interested in money and his job. He had a job as one of the managers of a really big company, which dealt in expensive cars and trucks. They were quite wealthy, but Kakashi didn't cared. He could go and buy right about everything, but just the one thing he couldn't buy was the love and company of family and friends and that was what he really wanted. Kakashi's parents had gotten into a major argument about their money, with the rest of his family and he saw them very little. His parents were busy people and he had little contact with them. Most of his friends also weren't real friends; they just stayed with him for he was the heir of a very wealthy family. It had saddened him many times before, but maybe this boy would be different, just maybe…

It was already late noon and Iruka came up with an idea.

"Hey let's go to my place to have some tea!" he said excitedly.

"Um, okay, sounds good" Kakashi answered as he smiled lightly.

They walked back to the main street and from there Iruka lead the way. When they got there, Kakashi looked up at it. The simple house was one floor high with an old fashion roof on top. The neighbourhood was coloured in happy colours; red, blue, green and yellow decorated the walls of the houses. The house before him was in light shade of yellow and looked very peaceful and inviting.

"I know it doesn't looks like much, but we're pretty simple people, we don't need much" the boys said happily.

"I think it looks nice and cosy, you must be very happy too live here" Kakashi said with a sad undertone.

His house was big and full of expensive things, but it lacked the snugness and warm touch of a happy family living in it. The gates of his house were always closed, except when he, his parents, or important guests needed to enter.

Iruka walked up the little path through their little front yard, opened the door and kicked his shoes out.

"You coming or not?" Iruka asked smiling

"You bet!" Kakashi happily ran up to Iruka also kicked his sneakers out and entered as Iruka closed the door behind him.

"Mom, I'm home and I've brought a friend" he called to wherever his mom was.

"Great honey! Wait I'll come down in a minute, I think you guys would like some tea" she called back from upstairs.

"Okay."

"Come, in the meantime I'll show you my room, don't mind the boxes, we still have to find a way to get rid of them" he pointed at one of the piles of boxes, which were spread throughout the house.

The house only had a ground floor and a staircase that let to an attic. This is where Iruka lead them. When they got upstairs, they stood in a little room that apparently was being used as a room to wash and dry all the laundry. The stairs ended in the middle of the back of the room, with a railing that went along both sides.

They walked across the tiny room and entered the room that lay next to it.

The room was pretty bright, because there was a large window on the left side of them. It was still a crowded by a few boxes but aside from that it looked really nice. On the windowsill were little plants and flowers placed and even a little bonsai tree decorated the blue-painted wood. The right side of the windowsill was empty, wider and a big soft pillow was placed there, indicating it was meant to be a window-seat.

Across the room from the window, on Kakashi's right, there was a big bed placed and on the side of it was a little wardrobe. The wall with the window in it was painted cobalt blue, the side of the bed was fire red, the wall with the doorway in it was yellow, the ceiling was green, the remaining wall across them was orange and the carpet was black. It make the room very alive and Kakashi almost got jealous of this boy's normal life, which he knew he would never have.

Further a little table and chair where in the room, probably meant for homework.

"So what do you think?" Iruka asked as he had seen Kakashi look at every inch of his new room.

"It looks great!" Kakashi said in enthusiasm.

"Thanks!" Iruka said and his cheeks reddened as he had done every time before when he smiled, it made him look very cute Kakashi admitted to himself.

Iruka would probably do well with the ladies, he knew almost for sure. Kakashi never knew when girls really had a crush on him or when they just wanted to be with him for the money. Even though he was still young he knew that his friends were only with him for money. They always sucked up to him. When he liked something, they immediately liked it too. He first couldn't believe that the kids were like that, but after a year he didn't trusted any of them anymore. In the village were also two boys, both a year older than he was, that didn't use sweet talks to get to his families money. They had threatened him more than once and even beaten him up three times before. All the times when he was beaten up, his 'so-called-friends' were there to witness it, but did nothing to help him and most even ran away. Sure he told his parents many times before, but they didn't listened to him. They were always too busy with work and it made him so angry. He wondered if Iruka-kun would become one of his 'so-called-friends'. He hoped not, he really liked the kid.

"Iruka can you come down! Tea's ready!" Iruka's mother called from downstairs, interrupting Kakashi thoughts about the boy next to him

"Coming!" Iruka called back and ran down the stairs, and Kakashi was fast to follow.

When they entered the kitchen a peaceful scent reached his nose. He felt so at home here.

"Ah so you must be the boy Iruka was talking about last night" the woman said friendly.

"My name is Umino Takichi, but you can just call me Taki" she held out her hand, which he took gently.

"I'm Hatake Kakashi" he shook it carefully.

"Well Kakashi, please to meet you" she smiled and he nodded.

Iruka had already sat down at the table and now Kakashi and Taki joined him.

They drank tea in silence, once in a while stealing a few glances at the others around the table.

When they had finished they placed their cups on the table and as Taki washed the cups, they heard the front door open and close. Iruka and Kakashi went to look in hall and they found Iruka's dad pulling off his thin jacket and hanging it on one of the hangers.

"Dad!" Iruka ran up to his father and got a firm hug.

Then he saw the silver-haired boy in the back of the hall.

"I see you brought along a friend" he said in his deep voice.

"Yes he's the boy form yesterday on the playing field" Iruka said.

"I'm Hatake Kakashi" Kakashi introduced and bowed his head a little.

"I see, I'm Kurai, Iruka's dad, but I guess you already figured that out" the huge man said smiling friendly. ((dark; think about his hair, eyes and tanned skin))

The sun was already slowly setting and Taki called from the kitchen. "Kakashi, would you like to stay and eat with us?"

"Um, well, I don't know if my parents thinks that'll be okay" he said hastily.

He really liked the idea of staying and he was sure that his parents wouldn't even miss him, but just felt awkward to stay in a household of people who he didn't even knew too well, but wanted to be a part of so badly. To be honest he had dreamed of such a life, but he just couldn't live that life in the household of someone else. He liked Iruka's parent much, but he wanted his own parents to be like these people, not to have his parents replaced. Now he knew that one dinner was nothing compared with living a whole life like this, but still while having those dreams and thoughts it just felt awkward.

Just as Taki was about to agree, a downpour broke outside. Lightning flashing first and not even a few seconds later hearing loud thunder.

"I was already wondering when it would finally fall down" Kurai said as Iruka looked confused up to his dad.

"I say the dark clouds on my way down here" he explained

"I think you better call your parents and ask them, because I have a feeling you'll be stuck here for a while" Taki appeared in doorway of the hall.


	3. Chap 3 Realisation

Kuraku

Chapter 3:

Realisation

Kakashi slowly woke up, the sun shone bright in his eyes and he quickly turned to lie on his side.

"Oi sleepyhead, get up!" an enthusiastic voice called.

"Go 'way, Iruka-kun" he mumbled from underneath his warm blanket.

Kakashi was currently lying on a mattress next to Iruka's bed. Last night he was forced to call home to tell that he was staying over, since after watching the weather report on the TV, which said that the storm most likely would calm down around midnight, he just didn't have enough arguments to go.

Flashback:

"You heard them Kakashi," Kurai said in his heavy voice. "They say it's not wise to go outside now, I guess you're stuck out here with us then" he smiled friendly.

"But…" he had nothing to argue with, it was true, it indeed was too dangerous to go outside now.

"Maybe the phone still works, then you can at least let your parents know where you are" Taki suggested.

"Um, okay…" he looked around, saw the phone and walked up to it.

He dialled his number and a quickly repeated peep was heard, indicating that someone on the other side of the phone was calling. He had already thought someone was, so he just spoke up to the peep.

"Hey mom, I think you already noticed, but there's a storm going on" he waited a little as if he was being answered.

"No, I'm at Iruka's house, he's a new kid I learned to know recently. We've just watched the forecast and his mother is offering me a dinner and a place to sleep, because it's said that the rain won't stop pouring down before midnight" Kakashi waited before speaking up again.

"Yes, I'll tell them and yes, I love you too, bye mom. See you tomorrow!" he laid down the phone and turned.

"She's okay with it and wishes to thank you for your hospitality, as do I" he bowed his head a little.

"That's okay, I'm glad to see Iruka making so fast such a good and decent friend" Taki smiled and returned to the kitchen for dinner.

End flashback:

"But were gonna have breakfast in only a few minutes" Iruka whined.

"So?" Kakashi was more than willing to skip breakfast in order to go to sleep again.

"Come on, tonight you can sleep in your own bed again" and the body that belonged to the voice rolled the poor sleepy boy off his mattress.

Bam!

"Leave me alone Iruka-kun" Kakashi growled.

"Looks like someone's rolled off the wrong side of his bed this mooorning…" Iruka almost sing-sang and poked Kakashi's head.

"That's not my fault, you just rolled me off yourself" Kakashi snarled.

"You're bad at making up excuses Kakashi-kun, now c'mon and let's get some breakfast! I'm starving!" Iruka's stomach confirmed that by growling hard and in its turn Kakashi's stomach growled back.

"See! You're hungry too, now get up!" Iruka picked up his pillow and swung it towards Kakashi's head.

It hit him and he shoot up, saw what hit him and threw it back at Iruka's head. Iruka caught it just in time, but when he wanted to throw it at his friend again, Kakashi hit him on his head with his own pillow.

"You'll regret that!" Iruka yelled in excitement and began a rapid pillow attack at Kakashi who had turned around and only got hit on his back.

The pillow fight went on for quite a while, but slowly came to an end as both boys became tired and went down to finally have breakfast.

After breakfast they watched TV 'till noon, had lunch and went out.

"Have you had fun?" Iruka asked Kakashi as they slowly walked towards the playing field, just out of lack to go anywhere else.

"Yeah I really enjoyed it, I can't remember the last time I had this much fun!" Kakashi said happily and if he remembered correctly, he really couldn't think of and occasion where he had this much fun.

He felt a bit sad again that things like this were rare to him, but he told himself that he shouldn't be sad at a time like this, he was having fun now and that was all what mattered.

"Good, I enjoyed it much too" Iruka said smiling as they walked through a quiet alley

"You enjoyed what, brat?" a mean voice behind them said.

They both turned and Kakashi startled when he saw to who the voice belonged, as he immediately backed up a few steps. Two boys stood in front of them and looked nastily at Kakashi. One of the boys was really fat and the other one was pretty tall and very slender. Both were wearing jeans, furthermore was the fat boy wearing a white shirt and he had a baseball cap on his head where greasy hair came from underneath. The slender boy was wearing a black shirt and his hair was short and spiked.

"Come on Kakashit, we want new CD's, give us some money" the slender boy said while insulting the silver-haired boy in front of him.

Iruka looked confused at Kakashi but was shocked to see the boy's eyes, fear written all over them.

"No, I won't let you take any of it anymore!" Kakashi's yelled.

"Trying to look good in front of your girlfriend now are we?" even though Iruka had his hair tied up in a ponytail, he still looked pretty girlish.

"Shut up! He's a boy!" Kakashi yelled again.

"Oh sorry, didn't know you swung that way, then boyfriend I mean" the slender boy said sarcastic and the fat boy chuckled.

"Shut up!" Kakashi yelled once again.

"Cursing is not really nice you know! Now where's the money!" the boy raised his voice at the end.

The fat boy grabbed Kakashi's shirt and threw him against the wall of the alley

"I want money!" the slender boy stood next Kakashi and his friend.

"I have nothing with me" Kakashi said with trouble.

"Hey!" Iruka said.

"What do you want!" the slender boy yelled harsh at him.

"Look, I don't know what's going on, but I'm sure we'll be able to solve this with words" Iruka said wisely.

"We just tried to do that, asshole, but your friend here didn't listened" he turned his attention back to Kakashi who was starting to have trouble breathing properly, because the arm of the fat boy was pushing hard against his chest.

"Last chance, Kakashit! Pay!" he boy shouted in his ear and when Kakashi made no attempt to get some money, the slender boy punched him hard in his stomach.

The fat boy gave Kakashi a knee against his chest and punched Kakashi several times in his face. The fat boy let go of his victim and backed up, as Kakashi fell down to the ground with his arms around his chest, obvious having trouble breathing.

"Why'd you do that!" Iruka yelled furious as he quickly sat down next to his friend in concern.

"We warned him and he should have listened!" the slender boy said.

He stepped closer and kicked Kakashi hard against his cheek, which made Kakashi fall in Iruka's arms, as he sat next to him and across from the inflictors of Kakashi's pains. The slender boy laughed at his pain and Iruka shouted "Get lost trash!" the slender boy walked forth again and also gave Iruka a kick against his head for calling them trash. The boys laughed at their pain again and took off.

"Kakashi are you okay?" Iruka asked, worry written all over his face, as a trickle of blood made its way running from his nose further down his face

"…" As much as Kakashi wanted to say something, nothing came out his mouth.

"Come, we quickly need someone to look at that" Iruka softly touched Kakashi lip, which had split open by one of the many hit's he had gotten.

"…" He was still not able to say anything so he just nodded.

"Can you stand up?" Iruka asked.

"I... I... d-don't k-k-know" he stuttered and he tried to stand on his own.

He almost stood, but slowly huddled together again. Iruka fastly stood up next to him, pulled his arms around his friend and half carried him to his own home. They hadn't even came far before the trouble had begun; less then five minutes walking. Luckily no one was on the street so they fastly walked towards Iruka's home again.

Iruka entered the house without leaving his shoes at the door, he quickly walked Kakashi to the couch and laid him down.

"Mom, you must come now!" Iruka called panicked.

"What is it?" his mother came running in the living room "Oh my…" she said when she saw Kakashi and her son's nose.

"I'll get some bandages and stuff" she ran away.

"Kakashi, you're going to be okay" Iruka came squatted down on his haunches.

"I know" Kakashi smiled.

It was the first time anybody had ever stood up for him, Kakashi knew for certain that everything would be okay.

"Um Kakashi, can you tell me why they wanted your money?" Iruka asked doubtfully.

Kakashi knew he would ask this and it would be a good chance to see if Iruka really was a friend or only a fake friend as he would now hear Kakashi's parents were rich.

"Uh well… my parents are really rich and um, right about every friend I have isn't a real one… they only suck up to me trying to get some of my parents money. The boys we met earlier don't suck up to me trying to get some, they use violence, as you've seen. They've done it before and they probably do it again" Kakashi smiled sadly at his friend.

"But why don't you tell your parents?" Iruka asked confused.

"I've tried, but they're always so busy with work, they don't even know when I'm home and when I'm not. They don't even know I've slept here".

"But I've heard you talk to your mom" Iruka was still confused.

"I faked it, as I had already thought they would, they were talking to someone else on the phone, they always do" Kakashi was still smiling sad.

"I'm sorry" Iruka looked down.

"What for?" Kakashi asked surprised.

"For what you've all gone through."

"It's okay, it's not like it's your fault" Kakashi said.

"I know but still, I couldn't imagine that my parents were like yours" Iruka said sadly, he really felt sorry for his friend.

"Iruka-kun, really, it's okay, but please don't tell your mom and dad, I just…" he looked at Iruka almost begging.

"I won't, if you wish me not to" Iruka promised.

Kakashi grabbed something from his pocket "Here."

He gave something, which was made of paper, to the boy next to him.

"What's this…" Iruka looked at the pieces of paper in his hand

There were lying three bank notes in his hand, worth a lot of money

"You can have it for sticking up for me, as far as I can remember, no one's ever done that for me."

Iruka looked at the pieces of paper and handled them back to Kakashi

"I don't need money to be happy" he said smiling.

"But…" Kakashi didn't know what to say.

Iruka opened Kakashi's hand pushed the money in it and folded the hand into a flabby fist.

"You keep it, you're my friend, I couldn't take money from you" Iruka smiled wider, his eyes becoming slits and he blushed lightly, like he did every time he smiled.

"Thanks, I won't forget this…" and with that Kakashi fainted, leaving Iruka a bit confused behind, wondering why he said that.


	4. Chap 4 A doctor’s visit

Kuraku

Chapter 4:

A doctor's visit

Just after Kakashi fainted Taki came storming with some bandages and disinfectant.

"What happened?" she asked Iruka, after she had given him a tissues to wipe the blood off his nose and face.

She was now softly dipping Kakashi's facial wounds and caressing him like he was her own child.

Iruka stuttered a little, not knowing what to say. After all, he didn't want to betray his new friend already, but what was he supposed to say? He thought quickly, but no excuse came to his mind. Suddenly Kakashi's body tensed a bit, his eyes began moving and they opened gently into slight slits.

"I… I fell…" he said before his body went limp again, saving Iruka from the unwanted answer he had to make up.

"Come on mom, he has to see a doctor, we'll explain later" Iruka urged desperately.

"Yes, stay with him, I'll go call a doctor" she said and walked out the living room.

"It'll all work out fine Kakashi-kun, I promise!" Iruka said as he carefully stroke some rebellious strands of hair from the boy's face.

Taki called a doctor and came back. She caressed the rest of the wounds on Kakashi's face until the doorbell rang and she had to answer it.

Iruka heard an unknown voice talking to his mother and they entered the living room

"Hello Iruka-kun, I've heard your friend has fallen, I'm doctor Yamacha" he said in a friendly and trusting tone.

"Let's have a look at him, shall we?" he stated more then asking.

He looked at the caressed wounds on Kakashi's face.

"You've done a good job, Mrs Umino," he said gently. "Now Iruka, did your friend said any specific place it hurted before he fainted?" he asked calmly.

"Uhm no, but I saw him having trouble breathing" Iruka said worriedly.

"Ah, let's take a look at his lungs then" the doctor said, more to himself then to his worried audience.

The doctor lifted Kakashi's shirt up to his chin, got his stethoscope from his pocket in the white doctor's coat he was wearing and examined the boy's chest.

The chest had a few scraps on some spots.

The doctor listened carefully to the sounds coming from his patient. When the cold stethoscope made first contact with the warmth of Kakashi's skin, he shivered, but continued his unconscious state.

The doctor mumbled something inaudible and pulled his stethoscope away again. He slowly stroked his hands over Kakashi's chest, feeling every little bump and hole.

"Yes, yes…" he mumble again.

"Doctor? Is it serious?" Taki asked.

"Um, well, it's okay, he only bruised a few of his ribs. He's really tough. He has gotten quite a hit, I can tell. He should be happy with this kind of light damage" the doctor explained.

Kakashi's eyes opened slowly into little slits again. Looking at the bright side of the outside world he closed them quickly again. After repeating this progress a few times he opened his eyes fully, but still looking oddly tiredly at them.

Kakashi's head hurted and an echo kept repeating itself:

"_You keep it, you're my friend, I couldn't take money from you" Iruka smiled wider, his eyes becoming slits and he blushed lightly, like he did every time he smiled._

"_Thanks, I won't forget this…" and with that Kakashi fainted._

…

"_You keep it, you're my friend, I couldn't take money from you" Iruka smiled wider._

"_Thanks, I won't forget this…" Kakashi fainted._

…

"_You keep it, you're my friend…" Iruka smiled wider._

…

"…_You're my friend…" Iruka smiled wider._

…

"…_You're my friend…" Iruka smiled._

"…_You're my friend…"_

"…_You're my friend…"_

"Kakashi?" a voice called out and Kakashi landed back in reality.

"Kakashi, how are you?" a friendly voice asked, a man's voice, a voice he hadn't heard before.

Kakashi's vision was blurred and he rubbed his eyes slowly trying to focus on the more clearer forming person at his side.

He saw an old, gentle looking man with glasses, wearing a big white coat. Next to him was Iruka, worry still written all over his face.

"Hello Kakashi, don't leave us alone again" the doctor said a bit sternly.

He felt his head spin and it made him quite dizzy. He had such a headache, it hurted when he breathed and above all that, he felt terribly sick in the stomach.

"I'm… I'm gonna… I think… I need to… puke," he said, feeling too dizzy to look up

"I'll get you a bucket" Taki fled quickly to the kitchen.

The doctor looked at Kakashi's dark eyes and pupils. Felt his forehead and got to his conclusion.

"On top off all your other injuries you have a mild concussion" the doctor said and shook his head

"What… What have I damaged more?" Kakashi said trembling, he wasn't afraid or anything, but he just couldn't control his voice yet.

Taki now came in the room again, holding a little bucket in her hand, as she placed the bucket next to Kakashi.

"You have a few scrape's on your face, a mild concussion as I've said already and a few bruised ribs, nothing too serious" the doctor ended with a sigh.

"You've been lucky, though. You've fallen hard and you should be lucky you don't have serious head wounds and broken ribs" the doctor explained, smiling.

"What happened anyway?" he directed the question more to Iruka then to Kakashi, but Kakashi was the one who answered it.

"Do you know the little cliff next to that road which leads to that mountain?"

"Yes I know it."

"Well we were playing tag and I suddenly slipped and fell off, as far as I can remember Iruka-kun came and got me up upon the road again and he helped me walk to his home" Kakashi told his just thought up story and Iruka nodded in silence

_Where had that kid learned to lie like that?_ Iruka asked himself.

"Then were did you got your nosebleed from?" Taki asked her son.

"Um, ah, at the end of the climb down to get Kakashi-kun up again, I fell too, although it wasn't far down" Iruka lied.

"Well, in a few weeks you'll be totally fine again, just take it easy and don't move to much and fast either, your head won't like it" the doctor helped him slowly up.

Iruka watched them still worried.

The doctor stood up and wanted to walk out.

"Remember what I said Kakashi, don't be too suborn and ignore it" the said sternly.

"That was all I could do," he smiled friendly, "If you have any problems furthermore, just come and see me" and with that Taki lead the doctor out the door.

"Sorry for making you lie for me…" Kakashi apologised.

"It's okay, I won't tell anyone, trust me" Iruka gave the boy a large smile.

"I do already" Kakashi joined his new friend in his large smile.

"So…" Taki came walking in again "I guess we'll walk you back to your house Kakashi, I think your parents are really concerned with you."

It was only then that both boys felt their stomach grumble. Time had past by faster then they had expected and when Iruka looked at the clock in their living room he saw that it was already past noon.

"I guess so" Kakashi said, pain of loneliness flashing through his eyes.

"Mom, can't we eat first? I'm really hungry" Iruka said at bit whiny.

"Okay, but after it we'll go see your parents Kakashi" Taki told the boys.

Kakashi was a bit afraid that his parents wouldn't open the door at his front door. Sure his parents had hired assistants to keep the house clean, a gardener to keep their big garden neat and they even had a butler, but all these people were at his house for the money. If Taki-san would ring at their door, the butler would open it. She would probably ask to see his parents and then his butler would probably ask her name and purpose for a meeting. He would look at his parent's agenda and pick a date next year when she could come and talk to his parents.

That was one thing he preferred not to let happen as an actual event.

"Uhm Taki-san?" the silver-haired boy asked.

"Mmm?" they had moved to sit in the kitchen, as Taki was preparing lunch.

"Well, when I talked to my mom last night, she said that she and my dad would be gone this afternoon" Kakashi announced doubtful.

He didn't knew if it was the best thing to lie to the caring mother, but he saw no other way except the hard truth.

"Ow and when would they be back?" Taki asked surprised.

"Uhm they didn't know" he lied.

"Oh, but what about you then? Tomorrow school begins again. Won't they be worried about you going to school alone?"

"Oh no, they've hired someone to look after me tomorrow" he smiled falsely.

"But that means you'll be home all alone tonight" she said becoming a bit worried.

"Ah, don't worry, I'll manage" he waved his hand indicating he really didn't care.

"Well at your present state, I can't let you be alone," she told him "I don't think any good mother could leave you alone tonight" she added.

That hit him hard, but he couldn't let them notice. It would only provoke questions.

"Really Taki-san, you've already given me to much! I can't accept sleeping here another night" the boy said polite.

"Well at least stay with us tonight, so that I know for sure that you won't get hurt without anyone nearby to help you" she said almost pleading.

"I…I…" she gave him irresistible puppy-eyes, as like his friend sitting next to him.

"Alright, but only if you two stop staring at me like that" he looked down, defeated.

"Good, we'll walk you home around nine, is that okay with you?" she said, maybe the boy wanted to stay up later, but his nod made it clear that he really didn't cared.

A silence settled, no one really willing to talk, but it was broken shortly after Taki had finished making lunch.


	5. Chap 5 Kakashi’s family

A/N: Here's chapter 5, enjoy! Please review! -

Kuraku

Chapter 5:

Kakashi's family

"Here" she handled both boys a bowl full of miso ramen and they ate while silence once again won over social activities, like talking for example.

After lunch the boys backed out of the kitchen to watch a new movie Iruka had gotten from one of his friends when he moved. He had totally forgotten about it, but it felt nice to watch this reminder of his previous home with a new friend from his new home.

After the movie they went out again, leaving a very disapproving Taki behind.

"Mom, trust me, we'll be okay" Iruka had entrusted his mother.

"Oi Kakashi! You wanna play along?" a few boys had asked, yelling from the playing grounds where the now already quite close friends had first met only a day or so ago.

"No, I pass, maybe some other time!" he had yelled back at them and they had walked on.

Kakashi had showed Iruka the place he mentioned in his explanation earlier that day, where he had supposedly fallen off. Also he had showed most of the hangout places in the village and about all other special features of his village.

"So, do you think you'll go to school tomorrow?" Iruka asked as he had noticed the hissing sound Kakashi made when breathing.

They were momentarily walking through another main street of the little village. Iruka was surprised that for such a small village, there were so many main streets and even dozens more alleys, with whom Kakashi was all very familiar with. Every little street, main street or alley seemed to carry its own little piece of the village's history.

"Yeah, I think so, why not?" he actually asked himself this question more than he asked Iruka, but Iruka was the one to answer it though.

"Well with those bruised ribs, mild concussion, scraps and those horrible boys still on the loose. I don't know, but isn't it more wisely to heal first before risking to run in to them again?" Iruka asked worried.

"Nah, I'm not afraid of them and they only call me names and threaten me at school. They don't dare to go any further than that" Kakashi explained lazily.

"But what if they do go further? Or if they follow you back home?"

"Then I'll just let the guarding dogs out" Kakashi joked.

"…" Iruka didn't know what to say and looked at the end of the road, which was now coming into sight. The road led into a big forest that he had seen when his parents had driven through it when they first came here.

_How can he talk so easyly about it? _

"It's not so hard," Kakashi answered "After a while you get used to it and shove it at the back of your head."

Kakashi's sudden answer had surprised Iruka, he didn't knew he had talked his thoughts aloud.

Iruka slowly let Kakashi's answer get absorbed in his mind. How could a boy, not even two years older than he was, live like this? Iruka thought sadly.

Slowly the sun was setting and making place for the big moon to settle itself upon the section of the earth where the two boys were.

"We should head back" Iruka decided.

"Yea, good idea" Kakashi agreed.

They slowly walked back and when they arrived, a huge man opened the door as Kakashi and Iruka were still pulling out their shoes on the front porch.

"Dad!" Iruka quickly got rid of his shoes and ran up his dad and got a loving hug from the huge man who had also opened the door.

"Ah Kakashi, I've heard what happened, next time first put mattress there and then fall!" Kurai said in his low voice.

"I'll try to remember the next time I might fall off of something" he chuckled.

All three of them entered and after not even ten minutes dinner was ready.

They all ate laughing, talking and having a good time. Kakashi really couldn't remember the last time he had have such a good time. No worries, no sadness, no phone calls, only laughter and joy. It absolutely felt great to be around a normal family again.

Although his parents hadn't always been like the way they were now. It had been many years and he should have even been to little to remember, but he did.

It was a time when his parents didn't have fights about their business. His dad had been in the management for a really long time, before he was even born and so he hadn't had a trouble with it. It all started when his mother got promoted into that station too. First there were just little arguments, but later on they sometimes escalated into fierce fights; His father hitting his mother several times.

His mother became really sick of it and wanted to leave, but she couldn't. Her job would fire her if she would leave her husband and she thought her job was way more important than her husband or her health. Still being sick of his father, she started to cheat on him. First the gardener, then the lonely neighbour and even men she had never known or seen before.

He knew about it all, as he had seen his mother too many times with all those other men. Soon his father found out as well. Kakashi had been the one to witness it all: his father had hit his mother, and he had hit her again, and again and again and the last hits he had given her before she had passed out, were even with a wooden chair which had stood nearby him. He saw his mother lying in a bloody mess on the floor, but couldn't do a thing about it. If he had interfered with them, he had surely gotten some hits as well. His father had lost all his rational thinking and seeing his father like that made Kakashi very, very afraid.

He was only four when it happened. He had cried all night long and a little piece of his heart had died that evening, knowing it would never revive again. At noon the next day he had finally crawled out his bed and walked in the kitchen to find it empty, like it had been more and more lately.

That evening his parent talked and came to the conclusion that it could no longer be that way. They had apologized to each other and then made wild love the whole night long. Kakashi thought his parents wouldn't fight anymore after that night, but how terribly wrong he was. His parents had decided to live for their jobs and only live together and be sex-buddies. Being only sex-buddies his mother decided she could go fool around with other men again; only having to survive another of his dad's full attacks. His dad was also banging other women though, but he thought that was irrelevant. His mother of course didn't liked his way of acting and many fights had developed from these courses of actions. Every time there was a fight, Kakashi had watched it. He made himself not turn away to drown in sorrow. He thought he had to face what he was up against. He saw how his mom got hit every time she did not obeyed her husband. It made him strong. He never ever wanted to be like his parents and by watching their mistakes he would make sure he would never treat his own children or wife that way, if he would ever have any.

Kakashi surely had gotten his own stubbornness from his mother. Everything his father forbid her to do, she did. He couldn't even call it stubbornness anymore, foolishness was more in place.

After every one of their fierce fights, they made mad love again, as a sort of fight-and-make-up. Kakashi only watched their fights, when the lovemaking began, he retreated back in his room, thinking about the reasons his parents had for doing the things they did.

The intense fights continued for over almost a year, but started decreasing as time passed.

Now, as he was almost eight, the fights were at minimum. His father was still seeing other women, like his mother was seeing other men, even though his father was still not quite happy with the new deal they had made with each other.

The new deal contented that his mother could see other men and his father could see other women, without any arguments. Sometimes when his father would see his wife with other men in his own bed, he would still snap, but most of the times he would just ignore the idea of HIS wife and OTHER men in HIS bed.

Kakashi had never spoken with anyone about it. He was so ashamed about his parents' behaviour. His father had also threatened him several times.

If he would say anything to anyone, His father would 'chase after him and beat him to a pulp until he could never say anything to anyone', were his exact words. He had hit him already a few times, the times when he couldn't stand their fights anymore. The times when his mother really needed his help, if not she would end up in the intensive care department afterwards. Those were the times his father had dared to scold him too, to hit him too, to kick him too and to say he didn't cared about him either.

The first time he had said that, Kakashi couldn't stop crying. At that his father had yelled at him that he was weak and that he should stop crying and just curl up and die.

Kakashi eyes were red from all the tears but he looked empty, it felt as if his heart was ripped into little pieces and was now dying very slowly and very painfully, torturing him as every second slowly went by. His chest hurted, not only from all the punches, but mostly by his own father's words. Shortly after he realized what his father had said, he fainted, although the time between the words and fainting felt like an eternity to the little silver-haired boy, as thoughts raced through his head at the speed of light.

While he was falling down he still vaguely heard his father's shouts: 'Yes, finally! He's dead! He was the biggest mistake I've ever made, well except asking you to marry me of course!' he faintly heard his father kick his mother another time, and then it all went black around him.

No more voices, no more pain, no more stress, just nothing more, only silence, only he and his dreams. It was the first time in a very long time he had dreamed so many pleasant dreams.

The next morning he woke up, he was still lying on the ground. The blood, which had came from his mother and him from the night before, was cleaned up. He had slowly crawled up to his room and locked it. The rest of the day he had sat in his room, but he hadn't spilled even one single tear, he felt too empty for it. Every thought about his parents and his misery made him want to cry, but he couldn't, he just couldn't let the tears flow. He would not allow himself to drown in sorrow, not because of these things, these people, these feelings, this hatred.

It was the first time in his life that he had hated something. He didn't hate his parents though, he hated himself. He hated the feeling of helplessness, the feeling of sadness, and the feeling of weakness. Afterwards he didn't know why he'd fainted, maybe it were the words that had shocked him so much, or maybe it were the punches, or maybe even both, but it had happened and he wasn't happy about it. He had given his dad prove that he indeed was weak and that made him feel even worse.

As it slowly went dark outside he had unlocked his room and moved into the kitchen to fix himself some food. As expected the kitchen was empty, but for the first time he was happy about it, as he had absolutely no need to see his parents now. He had eaten, gone back to his room, locked it, went into his bed and was soon fast asleep.

The other times he had interfered with his parents were about the same and he had learned to live with it, although every time it happened again, he felt dreadful.

"Kakashi-kun, what is it? Does your chest hurt?" a worried voice called him.

He opened his eyes and his sight was blurry. First he thought it was because he had opened them to quickly, but as his sight didn't approved, he found out he was crying.

"Kakashi-kun, what's the matter?" the worried voice asked again.

Kakashi looked up to see Iruka looking awfully worriedly at him.

His sight was still blurry, but he could see the troubled and caring look upon Iruka's face. After dinner Kakashi and Iruka had decided to watch another movie and then walk Kakashi home.

"Oh nothing, I'm fine" he quickly wiped his sleeve across his face, erasing all evidence of any tears that might have been there

He didn't even know he had been letting tears flow as he was thinking of his parents.

"Liar! Now tell what's wrong!" Iruka demanded still worried.

"Nothing."

"You can tell me Kakashi-kun, really" Iruka said in soft tone and Kakashi wanted to tell him so badly, but he couldn't.

Iruka would certainly dump him after it and then he would be alone again, he could let that happen.

"Nothing, quit asking" Kakashi said a little annoyed.

_Maybe that will stop him_ Kakashi thought to himself.

Indeed it helped, Iruka stopped asking, but Kakashi noticed him glancing at him several times.

_At least that's better than him asking questions_ he thought as he watched the last part of the movie with an empty expression.

After the film Kurai and Iruka walked him home.

The first sight of Kakashi's huge house took both Kurai as his son's breath away.

Kakashi brought them through the gate and up the pretty long driveway, Kakashi stood still at the end of it, in front of his front door.

"You never told us you were such a rich kid!" Kurai said.

"Uh yeah, I'd rather not show off with it" Kakashi said and Iruka didn't knew for certain if he heard a little bit of sadness in the boy's voice.

"Oh well, it's okay with me" Kurai laughed "Haha, but anyways, you sure you'll be okay all by yourself?" Kurai asked pretty serious suddenly.

"Yeah, I'll manage. It has happened before" Kakashi curved his eyes and smiled.

"Um okay" Kurai was still a little unsure if should leave the boy all alone. "Then we'll be going, right Iruka?" Iruka nodded.

Kurai turned and Iruka slowly followed, as the walked back down the driveway.

Iruka turned around, as Kakashi was opening the door.

"Hey Kakashi-kun, I'll see you tomorrow on school, right?" Iruka called.

"You bet!" the silver-haired called back enthusiastic.

"Pleasant dreams, Kakashi-kun!"

"You too!" and with that both boys turned.

_I wonder if his parents really haven't noticed he was gone…_ Iruka thought.


	6. Chap 6 School begins

I've just noticed that almost all my A/N have been deleted... so here by I'll just thank the peepz I already thanked and got deleted: **NarutoSasuke4evr**, **katsua**, **Hana** and **snow887 **I love you guys and thanks again for the great reviews!  
Now the peepz who have reviewed but haven't gotten a mention in my story before all those replacements...  
**AznNarutoGrl-91**: I know! I luv him so much and still I put him in such a situation! How could I! sorry but i'm just a huge drama-queen... T.T  
**shinycry**: thanks, and I'm glad you like it! your suggestion was great btw but I'd already made up my mind.. sorry ow and I share your sorrow for kakashi... even though i'm the one who wrote it..  
**jo**: thanks for reviewing! and yes it was very sad, but I'll think you'll be happy what is about to happen to Kakashi's parents, though MHUHAHAHA _laughs terribly evil_

Kuraku

Chapter 6:

School begins

Peep! Peep!

Bam!

Silence…

"Iruka, get up, it's time for school!" Taki called from downstairs.

"Mmpf!" a muffled sound came from underneath a pile of covers.

As if his alarm clock hadn't given him a hard time to keep on sleeping, his mother was trying even harder and he couldn't just slap a button on her to make her shut up.

"Iruka, get up or you'll be late on your first day at school!" his father called.

"Yeah! I'll get up, take it easy!" Iruka yelled moodily at his parents' hurried attempts to get him out his bed in time.

He tried to roll of his bed, but instead of rolling off upon his feet, he ended up falling flat on his covered face. Apparently, he had lost a wrestling match with his covers during the night, since he was wrapped up from top to bottom in his covers and had therefore not been able to land on his feet like he had planned to.

Iruka sleepily stuck his head out from the pile of covers, which had now moved from his bed down to the floor.

An arm popped out and he rubbed his still half-asleep eyes.

Slowly he unwrapped himself and crawled into the bathroom, taking off his pyjamas to shower.

After the shower he dressed up in a black pair of jeans, a white shirt with a weird picture on it and pulled on his dark coloured sneakers. He had tied his hair in a neat ponytail and let a short wave of pride caress his little amount of arrogance. His hair and his eyes were about the only things he really liked about his body. He thought his face was just a bit too girly and his broad body didn't contrasted nicely with it. Although that was what he thought. His parents thought totally different about him. They seemed to like every little piece of him, but that of course seemed natural to him.

'_Wasn't it normal for parents to love their children?'_ This was the thought he had always thought to be true, but now he knew a bit about the circumstances in Kakashi's family, he began to doubt about his opinion and with good reasons.

"Iruka, would you come out the bathroom already!" a hurried voice called desperately, interrupting his stream of thoughts.

"I'm coming! I'm coming! Relax! Geez…" he let out an annoyed snort, his early morning mood rising in lightning speed.

He had never been an early riser and he thought he would probable never be. His parents on the other hand loved to get up early and have a nice long breakfast. They hated to waste a perfect day by sleeping it away. Iruka didn't like to waste time either, but instead of crawling out his bed early, he just liked to get in it late.

He neither had a problem getting to bed early, but he always hated to come out in the morning. At night he wasn't tired fast, he could go to sleep, but didn't mind staying up late.

He loved vacations and weekends, not only because he didn't had any school, but mostly because he could sleep in late, until his annoyed parents finally kicked him out of his bed for wasting the day again.

Most of the times he would sleep until around eleven o'clock and have a nice brunch.

Now, to his annoyance and in the same time excitement, school was about to begin again.

"Bye mom, dad!" Iruka called as he ran out the door holding a little rucksack in his left hand.

Iruka had eaten a full bowl of cornflakes, brushed his teeth and was now finally leaving his new house.

"Bye honey!" his mother called after him, but Iruka hadn't heard it as he had swung the door tightly closed behind him.

Taki smiled. S_chool hasn't even started yet and he has already found quite a reliable friend, at least that's how Kakashi seems to be. I think they'll become great friends!_ she thought happily.

Iruka ran excitedly through the streets Kakashi had led him through two days ago.

He slowed down as he was nearing the school and when he looked around the corner of a street, which he had just entered only minutes ago, he saw the big building Kakashi had showed him.

Sakaki.

He thought it to be an appropriate name for a school, sacred tree. He thought of trees as wise, strong and wild, yet with a gentle touch. He had heard that some trees could even get centuries old.

He was convinced that trees could hear every conversation that was going on around them and since they lived so long, he thought it to be natural for them to be so wise. Of course he knew that trees didn't live like humans did, that they couldn't speak, think, laugh or cry, but sometimes he could just feel what a tree would be thinking, if it could. What it would feel; sadness, happiness, wariness, joyfulness. It was like a sixth sense, which he had probable inherited from his mother.

He had never talked about it with her, but knowing how she was such a master in Ikebana, he almost knew for certain she felt the same way too sometimes.

Trrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrng!

The school bell rang, not quite like his expectations. Children from all over the schoolyard and from other streets and alleys that ended or crossed the school gate ran towards the main entrance of the building.

Iruka shyly walked through the entrance and wriggled his way through the crowd to end up in a small hall. Children walking at every direction confusing him were to go next.

He stuck his right hand in his pocket and got a crumbled, yellow note out from it.

'Class 123' was written on it.

Iruka had gotten the note from his mother and she had told him his classroom was on the first floor, which was indicated by the first 1. His classroom had the number 23 and Taki had said that it wouldn't be hard to find.

Looking around the busy hall he began to doubt his mother's idea of 'easy to find'.

Slowly the amount of other children running around decreased and Iruka took a full look around.

The small hall had on both sides a stairway and in the corners of the hall were pretty high plants from which Iruka couldn't recognize their variety.

"Yo, Iruka-kun!" he heard a voice call from behind him.

Iruka turned and saw Kakashi run up to him.

"Hey" he greeted his newfound friend "Um Kakashi-kun?"

"Hm?"

"Do you know where this classroom is?" Iruka handled him the yellow note.

"123, of course! Come on, I'll take you to it!" Kakashi already ran away up the left staircase and Iruka was fast to follow.

The second last classroom had a sign with '123 – Uno Konui' on it.

"You lucky bastard, first year at school and you already get the nicer ones" Kakashi teased.

"What do you mean with 'the nicer ones'?" Iruka asked.

"You know what I mean, she may be married, but she still looks nicer than most female teachers here. She's also not too stern, but chaos never occurs in that classroom. She is a really good teacher I'll tell you that" Kakashi grinned and Iruka blushed slightly.

"Kakashi, what are you doing here?" a voice called for their attention.

A tall man stood before them with a surprised expression on his face, his blond hair spiking up in a messy way, pointing everywhere it could.

"Um, good morning Yondaime-sensei" Kakashi said quickly and tried to sneak away.

He couldn't get far though, as a strong hand, which had grabbed his collar just in time, was holding him.

"And where do you think you're going" Yondaime-sensei smirked in a playful way.

"Uh, well, I was just showing Iruka here where his classroom was and now he has seen it, I thought it to be a good opportunity to get to the our classroom" he explained.

"So Iruka, are you new here?" the man asked, his smirk had turned into a large grin.

"Yes, I've only been living here for a short time and this is the first time I'm going to school here. I have met Kakashi-kun in the vacation and he was so nice to show me the room" Iruka said polite.

"Haha, that's alright kid, you don't have to be so polite with me! I was only playing!" he man chuckled.

Kakashi thought that up until he had met Iruka, Yondaime-sensei was definitely his best reason to go to school.

Kakashi saw Iruka's blush deepen from the corner of his eye and he turned around to find a wide grinning sensei.

"Hehe, well, class is about to begin Iruka. Get in or you'll be late," Yondaime-sensei suggested still keeping his grin.

"And we should go now too" he looked at Kakashi now. "Otherwise your classmates are gonna think you killed me and that you're now busy hiding my corpse" he joked and began walking, dragging Kakashi behind him, since he was still holding his shirt.

"Bye Kakashi-kun!" Iruka called.

"Bye Iruka-kun, my classroom is in the other wing of the building, but I'll come pick you in the lunch break! Good luck!" Kakashi called back after Iruka as the shy boy slowly walked in classroom.

"Good morning" a beautiful young woman said smiling gentle at him.

"Um, g-good morning" he stuttered to the woman and his new class.

He felt his cheeks burn. He hated talking in front of a public; he was just too damn shy for it.

Luckily enough his new teacher looked friendly, he didn't know what to do if she would already dislike him for his shyness.

She was a curly brunette, dressed in fashioned clothing and deep light blue eyes.

"Well class, as you see we have a new classmate among us," she said friendly to her class. "This is Umino Iruka" she continued as she pointed at him with an open hand.

All Iruka did was nod shyly, as he was staring very interestedly at his shoes, still with a deep blush upon his cheeks.

After his introduction the whole class began whispering about this new kid. Iruka only felt his cheeks burning harder and he thought that if they wouldn't cool down in ten seconds, they would definitely set him on fire.

Soon the whispering turned to talking and into yelling.

It wasn't difficult for Iruka to hear what they were saying about him; the girls thought he was cute, especially because he was so shy and all and the boys thought he looked cool, although he did hear some questions about his ponytail, but those questions were quickly brought down to lonely muffled sounds in a crowd of thousands of other questions and remarks about the brunet boy.

_At least I'm not making a bad first impression..._ he thought silently, but his cheeks didn't appear to be cooling down.

"Kids calm down, please!" his teacher called.

She turned to him and she held out her hand "I'm Uno Konui and I'll be your teacher this year" she said in a kind voice and Iruka finally found the courage to look up.

"O-Ok" he stuttered and he mentally slapped himself for the impolitely answer and fastly shook her hand to continue studying his shoes again.

"Haha I see your somewhat shy" she giggled in a girly way.

"Well there are still some places left for you, go pick one" she smiled at him, pointing at the empty places across the classroom.

Iruka looked at his new class for the first time and walked up to a place at the utter back of the room.

He sat down and looked at the boy next to him.

The boy was wearing a black shirt, dark pants and white sneakers. He had a pale face with a smirk on it. His hair was grey/silver coloured, like that of Kakashi, but it didn't spiked up like Kakashi's did, it hang loose at shoulder length like his hair would do without his hair string, although he thought his own hair was somewhat longer than that of the boy.

"Hey, I'm Touji Mizuki" he introduced in a whisper since Uno-sensei had already asked for silence.

"I'm Iruka" he said in lack of saying something useful.

"I know, you just got introduced" Mizuki grinned in a half mocking way and a half joking way.

"Well guys, what have you've been up to this vacation?" Uno-sensei asked her class.

While in Iruka's class many hands were raised, in Kakashi's class everyone was talking at the same time, making the room pretty noisy.

"Kids calm down!" Yondaime-sensei spoke, as the noise immediately disappeared and silence took over.

"Good, now first, I want you all to meet a few new children," he said pointing at the right corner of the classroom.

All the stares of the class followed their teacher's arm and they saw two boys and a girl standing at the end of his pointing.

The girl had curly pitch-black hair and dark eyes with a reddish glow. The boy at her right had also dark eyes and dark brown hair that spiked smoothly up.

The last remaining boy had brown hair, brown eyes and his hairstyle was cut just above his shoulder hanging straight down. He had lazy eyes and was chewing quietly on a little twig in his mouth.

"Kids, this is Yuuhi Kurenai," he pointed at the girl, "This is Sarutobi Asuma," he pointed at the dark haired boy, "And last but not least, this is Shiranui Genma" he moved his hand to the last boy with the brown hair.

When Asuma's name was mentioned, whispers filled the room. Guesses were that he was family of their mayor, since they shared surname.

"Well, you three go pick a spot to sit" Yondaime said and the three children slowly looked through the class picking a nice spot to sit.

Kurenai came sitting next to Kakashi, Asuma only a footpath away from Kakashi and Genma two rows in front of them, which was on the front row.

"Like all classes are doing now, let's talk about our vacation" Yondaime-sensei grinned happily and instantly several hands were lifted.

"What's your name?" Kurenai asked whispering.

"Hatake Kakashi" he answered.

"Nice meeting you" she smiled friendly and he nodded in response.

"The pleasure is mine" he said joking and she chuckled a bit.

The whole morning Kakashi was aching for lunch break to ask Iruka how the first half of his first school day had gone by, and finally the bell rang indicating everyone was free for a little while.

Most classroom doors quickly slammed open and happy kids came running out.

As promised Kakashi walked slowly towards Iruka's classroom and when Iruka saw him, he run up to him.

"So how was it?" Kakashi asked.

"Um, well, quite awkward actually" Iruka began blushing again remembering all the gazes he had gotten when he stood there before the big class.

"How so?"

"Well I had to stand in front of the class when the teacher introduced me and the only thing I could do was stutter and blush" his blush deepened a bit more and Kakashi chuckled imagining the moment Iruka had just explained.

"Hehe, well you're not the only one though. My class has three new kids. We probable got them because we had the smallest class, until now of course" and with that the conversation got quiet.

Kakashi led the way down to the canteen and when they arrived they sat down at the last free table.

When they had just began eating a girl came up to them, followed by two boys.

"Um Kakashi-kun? Can we sit here?" the girl asked.

Kakashi looked at Iruka who looked approving at him.

"Sure Kurenai"

"Thanks" Kurenai said and sat down as the boys followed her example

"So Kakashi-kun, are you going to introduce us to your friend or not?" Kurenai asked kindly.

"Oh yeah, sorry," he turned to Iruka "These are the guys who have just moved in my class. This is Kurenai, that's Asuma and that's Genma" he introduced them.

"And guys this is Iruka" he told his new classmates, as Iruka began blushing again

"Nice to meet you" Kurenai said, winking as the other two boys only nodded.

"Same goes here" Iruka managed to get out without stuttering and Kurenai looked a little strange at him.

"Don't worry, Iruka here is just a bit shy, that's all" Kakashi said, who had already continued nibbling on his rice ball and Kurenai nodded in understanding.

The rest of the day went by fast and after school Kakashi, Iruka, Kurenai, Asuma and Genma had gone to the cinema to catch a nice movie.

Slowly days flew by, days turned into weeks and weeks into a month until it was almost 15th of September.


	7. Chap 7 Happy birthday Kakashi!

A/N:

Why hello my most favorite readers in this whole damn world :D  
How areya'll doing? Hope good!  
here are my comments to the reviews I've gotten:  
**shinycry**: good you took it the right way! and no, Iruka didn't blush cause he has/is going to have/had a crush on Yondaime-sensei. I just made him really shy... maybe just a lil' to much.. but anyway glad you liked it and yes, I'm going to update the next couple of weeks as fast as I can... well I always try that, but for the next weeks I think it's also going to work out! (it's vacation for me)  
**jo**: whaha I think you still have to wait quite a while before I'm gonna write my revenge on Kakashi's ol' folks! I have to mess up whole Iruka's life first mhuhaha... no I'm just gonna try and follow what really happened in manga/anime, that story line at least.. I mean there is so lil' known about Kakashi's personal life and his ralitives and friends, but it's pretty his parents are dead, since his dad killed himself in the manga...  
Ow and what happens on the 15th of September can you read in this chappie, but didn't you really know that our very beloved and adored Kaka is born on that date?  
I guess now you do though... ;P

I also want to vocalize my respect paying on the victims from the terrorist attacks today in London!  
-bows and holds silent for a minute-  
I really hope this was the last time anything like this ever happens again and I'm really sorry for all victims, relatives and friends of them and also the bystanders. although they may have been hurt, I can't imagine what a nightmare it is to see, for example that bus explode in front of you!

alright that was it for my A/N, go on, read and enjoy the chap and I'd apreciate it very much if I'd get some reviews from one of you! I promise to answer to all of them and update chappie 8 really fast:D :D  
Ja ne

Kuraku

Chapter 7:

Happy birthday Kakashi!

It's was the morning of the fifteenth of September and Kakashi woke up by his alarm clock that was making a lot noises, which was probably annoying most birds outside, who were trying to sing nice songs despite the fuss from inside the large house.

Kakashi shut his alarm up by giving it a fierce hit on it's front side and sat up in his bed, slowly rubbing his eyes.

Ding Dong!

The doorbell rang and Kakashi stood up quickly. It was probably the household helpers he thought. He was too sleepy to remember they all had keys.

Kakashi opened the door and was greeted by his friends; Iruka, Kurenai, Asuma and Genma.

"AAAAAH KAKASHI! FOR THESAKE OF ALL THAT'S PURE, PLEASE PUT SOMETHING ON!" Kurenai shrieked when she saw her friend and covered her eyes as quickly as she could.

Kakashi was still so drowsy that when he had gone to open the door he had forgotten to put some clothes on and now he stood there in his doorway in his shorts eyeing his friends lazily. Iruka blushed and both Asuma as Genma chuckled in amusement.

"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR! GO PUT SOMETHING ON!" Kurenai shouted on the top of her longs still covering her eyes.

"NOW!"

"Yeah, yeah relax! Geez…" Kakashi said rubbing his eyes once again and turned.

"Make yourself comfortable" he said as he slowly walked off towards his room, still drowsy, "I'll be back in a minute"

"Woow!" Kurenai said in awe, as she finally let her hands fall down and took a peak at the inside of Kakashi's gigantic house.

Neither Kurenai nor Asuma or Genma had ever been at Kakashi's place and they all found it quite amazing.

Iruka had been there several times and Kakashi had given him a full tour around the house, so he wasn't in such awe as the other three visitors.

Iruka had sat down comfortably on the big sofa and after a few minutes Asuma and Genma joined him, leaving Kurenai to investigate the rest of the house on her own.

"So what are you guys doing here?" came a sudden voice behind the three boys on the sofa.

"Can't you remember?" Asuma said without turning his head to see who was talking to them, recognizing Kakashi's voice immediately.

"I can't remember what?" Kakashi asked still sleepy.

"It's the fifteenth of September, is it coming back to you again?" Genma said giving away an important clue.

"No, what should be coming back to me?" he asked remembering nothing important.

"What have you been sniffing?" Kurenai asked lightly annoyed by Kakashi's attitude.

"Nothing."

"Then clearly you've lost the last of your remaining brain cells, who would otherwise forget about their birthday!" Kurenai said beginning to sound more and more annoyed by the minute.

"Oh yeah, right, my birthday! Is it already my birthday again? I can't remember the last time I've actually done something on it" Kakashi laughed sheepishly and scratched the back of his head in an apologetic way.

"My god! Kakashi, when was the last time you celebrated your birthday?" Iruka asked looking a bit strange at him as he stood up from the sofa and walked near his friend.

Kakashi thought for a minute "Um, if I remember correct, I was four when I last celebrated it" he said still scratching the back of his head and grinning sheepishly.

"WHAT? YOU WERE FOUR THE LAST TIME YOU CELEBRATED YOUR OWN BIRTHDAY?" Kurenai yelled, a bit shocked by her friend's statement.

Kakashi just nodded and kept laughing sheepishly.

"How-" Kurenai wanted to continue her questioning but was cut off by Iruka.

"Well than that'll make this birthday only more special" he said cheerfully.

He knew the most possible cause of Kakashi's lack of special occasions; his miserable social life right there at his home.

He didn't wanted to make Kakashi or say such a depressing thing to his other friends, or just lie about his parents on his birthday, so Iruka just decided that he wouldn't let the conversation lead to that point.

After the short explanation he had gotten on the second day from when they had met, Kakashi had never spoken about his parents.

Iruka only knew that Kakashi's parents practically ignored him and that he didn't have had any true friends until he himself came to live in the village.

Kakashi had never felt any need to explain anything more, even when the conversation had led to questions about him and his miserable life at home. He in that case would shut his mouth and refused to say anything or he would continue in a fake happiness on another subject. So Iruka never dared to press on the subject.

"So what are you guys gonna do then?" Kakashi had grasped the second intention of Iruka's sentence, which held a suggestion to move on to a next topic.

"We're gonna make this an unforgettable day!" Asuma said happily. "And I can be the first to congratulate you" he began standing up from the big sofa, but Kurenai, who was already standing, ran towards her friends and flung her arms around his neck.

"Congratulations Kakashi, you're already eight, I'm so envious of you and Asuma!" she kissed Kakashi lightly on his cheek and let him go.

"So far for being the first, I guess" Asuma sighed with a soft smile.

Asuma had turned eight on the eighteenth of October and had gotten quite a raise in allowance. Kurenai had gotten so jealous of him and was waiting impatiently for her own birthday to come along, which was on the eleventh of June. She was expecting an even higher raise than Asuma's, because she thought she was just too adorable to keep any money away from her at all.

Her friends knew of course that this was unlikely to happen, but since they knew she was to suborn to listen to them anyway they decided not to ravage she girls' illusions. She was just too naive to see it for herself and she listen to no one.

"Happy birthday buddy" Asuma offered Kakashi his hand and it was taken gladly by his friend.

"Thanks" Kakashi said happily and his eyes curved into slits.

"Aaaw Asuma! Why don't you just hug him!" Kurenai whined, he hated it when boys were too macho to hug another boy.

"No, thank you, I'll pass" Asuma said chuckling.

Genma stood up now too, and hugged his friend, also chuckling.

"Happy birthday from me too" he said between his chuckles.

"Way to go, Genma!" Kurenai cheered.

Iruka followed Genma's example and hugged Kakashi tightly.

"Happy birthday Kakashi-kun!" he said blushing slightly and let go.

Kakashi was deeply touched, but couldn't let it show.

All those years of his parents' harsh treatments made him surrender to the coldness in their demeanour and now, when the moment asked for it, he couldn't show how happy he was.

"Thanks," he let his hand rest on Iruka's shoulder, as he looked into the younger boy's eyes and then let his eyes wander over his other friends. "Thank you everyone, and I mean it!"

His eyes became splits again as he truly meant his thanks from the bottom of his heart. Though, probably only Iruka would know just how much it meant to him. He wished he knew a way to show his friends how much he appreciated it all.

"Aw, that's just too sweet!" Kurenai had almost melted under Kakashi's stare.

She knew she shouldn't, but slowly over the last months as she began to know Kakashi better, she had begun developing a crush on him. She thought it was wrong, they were just friends and that was the only way they should feel about each other.

How could the two of them ever be a couple? And was it really a crush? Was it really love? Or did she just like him so much that she thought she had a crush on him?

"Kurenai?" her name brought her back in reality by the main subject of her thoughts.

"Huh?" she looked at the silver-haired boy who had just spoken to her.

"Are you coming?" he asked.

"Where to?" she asked curious.

"Have you listened at all to what I've just said?".

"No" a light blush was forming across her cheeks.

She had been so pulled into her own thoughts that she hadn't even heard her friends speak.

"Hehe, were gonna get some breakfast, it's my treat" he grinned at the girl's innocence.

"Oh, okay!" the slight blush disappeared and a big smile took its place.

She quickly bumped happily out of the big house, as Kakashi closed the door behind her.

"So what are we gonna eat?" Kakashi asked carelessly.

"I'd like some ramen" Iruka blushed as he was the first one to speak up.

"Good idea, I'm in" Asuma agreed.

"Me too" Genma said.

"Me three" Kurenai chirped happily.

"Then ramen it is" Kakashi stated.

They walked down the long driveway from Kakashi's house, went through the gate and started walking towards the best ramen stand in the village, Ichiraku.

Kakashi looked pretty lost in thoughts and Kurenai wondered about what. So being Kurenai and having a very bold character she just asked.

"Penny for you thoughts?"

"Oh I was just wondering how you came past the gate?" Kakashi answered.

"Quite simple" Asuma answered and Kakashi looked confused at him.

"We climbed over it" he said and Kakashi's face formed in a 'oh-I-knew-that' kind of way.

They slowly walked towards the stand, talking all the way down there.

They arrived, ordered and ate their steaming ramen quietly. Then it was finally time to head towards school.

School had been the same throughout the day, except that in the morning Yondaime-sensei had taken the time to sing a birthday song for Kakashi, which he by the way really appreciated, but had pretended to hate.

After school the five friends had agreed to meet up and school was about to finish any minute now.

"That was it for today, class" Yondaime-sensei said and he was followed by happy whispers.

'Trrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrng!' the bell rang, announcing to every class that the school had ended.

Kakashi, Asuma, Kurenai and Genma slowly left the classroom to look up the last remaining piece of their gang.

When the four of them deserted the school, Iruka was already waiting for them.

They slowly walked off the playing ground and guided Kakashi through the many alleys and streets the village had.

"So what are we gonna do now?" Kakashi asked Iruka lazily.

Kurenai and Asuma were busy talking and Genma was walking in front of them so only Iruka was left to talk to, not that Kakashi found that bad, more the opposite.

"We still haven't given you your birthday present, that's what we're gonna do now" Iruka said mysteriously.

"Why do you all bother giving me a present?" he asked carelessly.

"Kakashi, we're you friends, it's normal to give friends presents at their birthday" Iruka looked sympathetically at him.

Kakashi looked thoughtfully back at him.

While gazing deep into each other's eyes they both knew they had no need to say anything more.

"We're here" Genma suddenly spoke up and demanded the attention of the others.

"Where's here?" Kakashi asked.

They were standing in front of an old building, red painted kanji decorating the creamy wall of the building. The kanji were saying: 'Welcome students or visitors, we hope thou find thy peace here'

The windows were almost too dirty to look through and the dimmed light from inside the building didn't quite help Kakashi to take a peek inside.

"Let's go!" Kurenai said cheerfully, as she stepped happily inside and was followed by Asuma and Genma.

Kakashi looked suspiciously at the building, but was pushed in by Iruka.

"Come on, it won't hurt you, I promise" his voice was still holding that mysterious tone.

"Alright, alright, I'll play along" Kakashi said playfully as he slowly sauntered further into the gloomy building.

"Who's there?" a low voice came from the pitch-black shadows in the back on the dusty room.

"It's us sensei" Asuma seemed way too relaxed in the creepy situation.

"Ah, it's you youngsters" suddenly a light was turned on by the person in the back of the room.

The light flickered a few times and when it stopped a broad man was standing in front of them. The man had long white hair, a slight blush and naughty eyes wandering across a light blue coloured book that he was reading. The book had a big cross on the back and a smaller R underneath it. On the cover of the book were two kissing people shown. The woman's beasts were almost bare and the man had his Romeo-like-shirt only hanging loose over his arms, as the buttons were all undone.

The broad man was dressed in a grey kimono, with two red dots on the chest and he wore a net shirt underneath it. On his feet he wore original Japanese wooden sandals.

"So what do you want?" he asked, not looking over at them as his book seemed ten times more interesting than the kids in front of them.

"We're here to become students" Genma said.

"So, you brats wanna get your ass kicked, ne?" he said still not looking up.

"Oi Iruka, who's this freaky hentai?" Kakashi asked loud enough for the man at the back to hear him and he finally looked up from his book.

"You've got some nerve coming in here and calling me a freaky hentai, brat" he said as his eyes were becoming darker by the second.

"What? It's truth, isn't it? It's not my fault you read dirty hentai novels" Kakashi said carelessly.

"And how would you know this is a dirty book?" he questioned the boy, pointing with his finger at the now closed book

"I just happen to know what that R means and if I wouldn't know that, the couple on the front say enough, if you ask me" he snorted in dislike of the perverted man.

He had seen the books many times lying around in his father's bedroom and had once gotten the misplaced curiosity to look into one of the books.

What he had read and the pictures he'd seen had haunted him for many long weeks. _How could people ever like to do those things?_ he had thought disgusted.

"Yeah right and I'm a very wealthy queen who's undercover on a dangerous mission to save the world" the man said sarcastically.

"That's noticeable, it's the hair that betrays your cover, but suit yourself, I'm outta here!" Kakashi was about to leave when Asuma grabbed his collar and pulled him back.

"You're not going anywhere yet," he held Kakashi next to him.

"So? What about it?"

"As long as you guys have the money to pay for the lessons I have no problem with it" the white-haired man said carelessly and continued his reading.

"So when do we start sensei?" Iruka asked shyly, he didn't quite knew what to think of the careless, perverted man before him.

"I don't know" he was still reading his perverted novel.

"But you're our sensei now!" Kurenai finally spoke up.

"Yes, so?" he seem to care less about his new students than he did about his novel.

"Can we start tomorrow?" Genma decided to end the stupid conversation and to just pick a day.

"Fine."

"Sensei what's your name anyway?" Kurenai tried to get into a useful conversation one last time.

"Jiraiya"

"Who cares? I'm just gonna call him ero-sensei" Kakashi decided stubbornly.

"Well, just so you know, brat. This book is just to gather information, I'm gonna become a great writer, you'll see."

"And what sort of books are you going to write? I bet it'll be perverted ones."

"So? Have a problem with that?"

"Why would I care what you'll be doing in your spare time?" the tension between the two was mounting with every second that went by as Jiraiya had now taken the time to look at the silver-haired boy.

Suddenly they both turned their heads in another direction in a very childish and stubborn kind of way and both crossing their arms like four-year-olds.

"Geez, how troublesome" Asuma sighed.

"In what is the hentai going to teach us anyway?" Kakashi said still not looking over at his new sensei.

"Karate."

"Why?" he opened his tightly shut eyes too look at Kurenai, who had answered his last question.

"Iruka came up with the idea and we all thought you'd like it" her face fell. "Guess we were wrong after all."

"No, not at all, I think I'm gonna like it really much" he hated to disappoint his friends.

"Really? Do you really like our present?" Kurenai questioned and looked straight into the dark eyes that belonged to Kakashi as he nodded with his eyes curved.

"Just have to get used to our new sensei, but it's the best gift I've ever gotten from anyone" he smile sweetly at his friends.

"Great!" she said cheerfully.

A/N:

hope you guys enjoyed it and if anyones wondering about the Japanese in this chap or in any other chapter, just put your question in a review or mail me or something like that, I'll be happy to explain... (then I actually feel smart for once ;P)


	8. Chap 8 Fateful evening

A/N: 

Why hello there my dear, dear readers!  
Reviewers:  
**shinycry**: yay I find Jiraiya such a funny perv! I know in manga none of them was trained by Jiraiya but I just had to put him into the story! oh and sorry for updating so late but I'm busy converting my newbedroom! yay that's right I'm getting a new bedroom! but there's still lotta work to do, so sorry for my late update and if in the future I update slow again!  
**jo**: ero-sensei means perverted teacher by my limited knowledge of Japanese. and I also like the idea of kakashi's disgust for Jiraiya but I just told how much I like the old perv so i'm not saying that again hehe...  
oh and the problem with kurenai is fixed in this chappie... go read it fast! hihi

I also have prenounced **shinycry** and **jo** as my first loyal reviewers! congrats you 2! oh and forgot to tell this: _I'm going on a vacation for 3 weeks_, and I don't think I'll update in the coming weeks, but I'm gonna bring a laptop on my trip so expect lotsa updates when I get back... I remember last year... I brought back 4 new chapters with me! I don't know if I'm gonna make 4 again but I'll try my best!  
untill then, I hope all of you review on me... I was kinda disappointed when I saw that until this update I only got 2 new reviews...  
I feel a little neglected... I need something to write for... not only to express myself but also to let other people read it... otherwise I wouldn't put it online... so please review... I look a little desperate now, don't I?

Kuraku

Chapter 8:

Fateful evening

The first few months the students had trained hard, but slowly the training sessions were softening and they had a long discussion with their sensei about it.

After the discussion, it all went back to normal.

After a year, four other students entered; Maito Gai, Mitarashi Anko, Morino Ibiki and Uchiha Obito.

The first boy, Gai, was a very… erm… 'unique' boy. He had long pitch-black hair, which always seemed to hold a gloss over it and his eyes looked darkened by his full lashes. He always wore tight clothes, which were most of the times green, as green was obviously his favourite colour.

The minute he had seen Kakashi fight, he had declared Kakashi and him to be 'everlasting rivals'. Kakashi at first found the other boy quite annoying, since Gai always tried to trick him into some sort of game to see which one of them would win it. When Kakashi had finally agreed to one, Gai would make up another set of rules for himself. For example, when he would lose he would spend a full week training on the same sandals Jiraiya wore or do a hundred sit-ups without breathing heavily or something similar to that.

Kakashi never came to check on Gai to see if he was keeping the promise, when the boy had indeed lost, he cared less what his soon-to-be friend was doing, but Gai always kept the promise he made with himself.

'_What doesn't kills me, makes me stronger_' was what he always said.

He told himself that, because when he would lose to Kakashi by the lack of experience, he would train himself hard every time he would lose and he knew that that was the only way he would become stronger than Kakashi.

'_Set a higher goal than your opponent, work up to that goal, then overcome it and you will definitely become stronger than your opponent,'_ this was how Gai's mind worked.

Therefore Kakashi thought of Gai as a simple-minded self-centred annoyance, who just couldn't shut up, and especially couldn't stop talking about how great and pretty he himself was. But as time slowly passed, they became great friends.

Anko was along with Kurenai the only girl in their little karate-club. She was as loudmouthed, as she was insolent, headstrong and straightforward. She never agreed on anything if she was even only a little bit against it and she could be more stubborn than Kakashi sometimes was.

But even though, she had all those bad qualities, she made it all up in innocence and sweetness. Everyone thought she was the cutest girl they'd ever seen when she blushed, in which only Ibiki could manage in making her do.

She had short black hair, which always stood up in quite a messy way. She was a real tomboy. Her eyes were large and coloured in a deep brown ocean of wild energy and willpower.

Ibiki, the third kid who entered was a year older than the others were and two years older than Iruka and Anko were, as Anko was about the same age as Iruka was.

Ibiki was built in robust way and looked like nothing in the world could ever hurt him. He always had a serious expression on his tanned face and he looked quite emotionless. Nobody seemed to get close to him; he was even that cold towards his own little brother, Idate, who sadly enough respected his older brother too much to stand up for himself.

After a long time only Anko seemed to be able to break through the cold barrier that Ibiki had build to protect himself against the hectic world. Her innocence and bluntness gave Ibiki the opportunity to socialise himself some and soon he and Anko became great friends, although neither one of them were probably ever going to admit that. The two always made needless sarcastic remarks on each other, but they never meant anything by them.

Obito also wasn't one of the most open of people. He wasn't cold, but just really mysterious and careless. The only one who seemed to get close to the boy was Kakashi. The boys didn't see each other much either, only at the training sessions with Jiraiya-sensei, but with only one look they seemed to know what the other was thinking.

When… no, _if_ Obito talked it was always objective and he seemed to be a very down-to-earth boy. He had black spiky hair, courageous eyes daring anyone to cross his path, which always seemed to be lost in something, like he wasn't looking at things, but more like looking through them, as if he was always trying to read underneath the underneath.

He didn't dress out of the ordinary, except for the grey goggles that he always seemed to wear.

Slowly the little kids, who had met a long time ago, were growing up. When Iruka became ten, he quitted their little karate club. He had gotten stuck on a certain level and wasn't able to get better, he was even beginning to slow down the others in progressing.

A month later a new kid entered; Gekkou Hayate.

The boy had brown, shoulder length hair, sick drooping eyes and always had some horrible sounding cough.

Kakashi, Obito and Gai were Jiraiya's most promising students and he had taken some extra time to train them.

One year after Iruka's departure a competition has held in a town nearby. Obito had ended second, Kakashi third and Gai fifth, which of course made Gai do weird training sessions because he had ended lower than Kakashi had.

Life wasn't quite exiting, nobody dared to mock Kakashi anymore and he was making great friends. Iruka stayed Kakashi's best friend, like it had always been and they had lots of fun together.

Iruka hadn't changed much; he still held the same sweet smile, still the soft brown hair hanging loosely behind him in a ponytail, though it had gained length, and the slight blush decorating his tanned cheeks in a cute way. The things that had changed were his way of dressing; he began to wear tighter shirts and in when it got colder with loose jackets over them. His broad body had thinned more in comparison with his body length and made him quite popular among the girls.

As he was half way through his fourteenth year of life, Kakashi had both physically and mentally changed much; his thin body had begun to form more muscular shapes, but what had changed most of all were his eyes. To outsiders the pair of eyes seemed terribly laid back, but to someone who was as close to the silver haired boy as Iruka was, could see the dark grey eyes weren't as careless as they seemed, the word 'peaceful' fitted those eyes better.

Mentally Kakashi had also changed significantly.

He had gotten more laid back than he already was and repeatedly forgot that time existed. It never really got him into troubles though. Sometimes he would even be an hour late for an appointment. He then would always make up some weird excuse that most of the times was so lame almost anyone would laugh about it and forgive the young teenager.

He also learned to ignore most of his parent's new arguments, which were beginning to occur on daily base these last weeks.

He had learned to enjoy every single minute he got to spend with his friends. He felt safe with them, trusted, loved and he could be the person he really was.

They had saved him from the horrible lonely hell he had gotten stuck in now so long ago. They were the ones who had brought peace to his traumatised mind.

All in all, Kakashi had changed much, but one thing always seemed to stay the same; his silver hair wildly spiking up, like he had just woken up.

Kurenai had totally forgotten about her little half-crush on Kakashi and instead developed a full crush on Asuma. Asuma secretly cared more about Kurenai than just a friend too, but just wasn't ready to give it a serious thought.

Genma on the other hand was changing girlfriend week after week.

Also Mizuki was doing fine, he had just won the heart of a girl he had gotten a crush on so long ago, and finally she had noticed him too.

Gai was still the same, as he had claimed he had his life devoted to training. Only Jiraiya wasn't as pleased with this newfound goal as Gai was. Sure, an hour of Gai's preaches about how beautiful he, his life and the world was, was just enough to endure, but more than an hour would probably make any human break down and cry until dehydration killed you.

Obito was getting a little more social with the rest of the karate club and sometimes actually came by to hang with Kakashi, Iruka, Genma and Asuma. Nobody knew what triggered him, but they all enjoyed his presence.

Anko and Ibiki had changed about nothing, except that Anko had decided to let her hair grow longer. Her hair was now at her shoulder length and changed colour every two weeks. Momentarily, Anko had blond hair with dark highlights.

Life became so predictable that it even was supposed to be boring, yet it wasn't. The teenagers liked the peace, but of course exactly those precious things in life were not meant to last forever.

Kakashi and Iruka were slowly sauntering back to Iruka's home from a movie at the local cinema.

"What do you want to do when we get back?" Iruka asked drowsily, he always became so lazy from movies, not that he disliked it though.

"I don't know" Kakashi was going to sleep over that night.

It was a pre-birthday party as Iruka's thirteenth birthday was in less than a week.

"Me either" it got quiet again as both of them enjoyed their sleepy moods.

Iruka's house came into sight. They walked up the short driveway of the house, as it was empty and deserted.

"Hmm strange, mom and dad are still not home" Iruka thought aloud.

His father and mother had decided that all the while Iruka was gone with Kakashi, they would go to a nearby city and buy him presents for his birthday. Taki had tried to find some nice presents in their village earlier that week, but only found a pretty silver necklace for boys, like men in the army have, only without the nametag. It wasn't anything special at all, just some regular necklace, but that was what Taki liked about it, the ordinariness of the little pieces of silver, just like her family was; nothing out of the ordinary, but fun anyway.

She had packed it in paper with happy colours and hid it in her upper nightstand drawer; Iruka always seemed to miss that hiding place when he went looking for his presents.

"Maybe they got stuck into a traffic jam" Kakashi suggested.

"Yeah…" Iruka suddenly got a bad feeling, but he didn't knew why.

_It isn't weird to get into a traffic jam at this time of the day, but then why am I having such a bad feeling about this?_ He thought to himself but couldn't come up with a proper answer and decided to ignore this new unwelcome feeling.

They entered the house and continued to move into the kitchen.

"You want something to drink?" Iruka asked, as he saw his friend settle himself down unto one of the kitchen chairs.

"No thanks, I'm not really thirsty" Kakashi said as he laid his chin down on his arms that were lying crossed on the table in front of him.

"Ah well, I am" he announced unnecessarily.

Iruka got himself something to drink and sat next to his friend.

Iruka quietly sipped at the glass, swallowing only small amounts of the lemonade he had just poured in it for himself. Kakashi gazed at the brown haired boy before him and Iruka gazed back into the dark unrevealing, almost emotionless pair of eyes that belonged to Kakashi.

After their gazing match Iruka suggested to watch some TV, and with nothing else to do the boys moved from the kitchen into the living room.

Slowly minutes crawled by as the two friends lazily watched the screen before them.

After two whole hours had passed slowly by, Iruka began to worry and Kakashi began to get quite hungry. His stomach had decided not to keep it a secret from anyone within a five-mile radius, as it was grumbling like no tomorrow. Kakashi was beginning to get fed up with his stomach's attitude and was about to ask Iruka if maybe the two of them could try to fix some food together, but his unasked question was rudely interrupted by the doorbell that rang loudly through the entire house.

"That's strange…" Iruka murmured but got up to open the door anyway.

It wasn't often that people would ring their doorbell at that hour, as it was slowly hitting seven o'clock. The sun was getting ready to set and let the moon take its place high up in the great, dark, empty sky.

Iruka opened the door and an unknown woman and man were standing outside. They both wore long beige coloured coats, like detectives always seemed to wear. The woman was probably only around her twenties, while the man was definitely hitting the forties. They had both serious expressions on their faces; one could almost even call it anger what was written on the unknown couple's faces, although helplessness would fit in nicely too.

"Um, hello" the woman's angry expression softened quickly, as she looked into the face of the twelve-year-old boy in front of her.

It shifted to Kakashi face when he stood next to his friend, as he had followed his friend to the door.

"Hello, who are you and why are you here?" Iruka spoke up.

"Uh, well, we're looking for someone named Umino Iruka" she said unsure and the sentence sounded more like a question than an explanation.

"I'm Iruka" he said lazily.

"Than can we come in Iruka?" the man spoke up for the first time and when Iruka looked at him he had noticed that also the harsh expression on the man's face had softened.

"Sorry, my mom made me promise not to let strangers in the house" he said carelessly.

"Um, but we're here about that, about your parents" she fumbled in one of the pockets in her coat and got something dark out of it which looked a lot like a wallet of some kind.

"Look, were from the police," she clipped it open and a shiny badge was inside "we have something to tell you" she said very uneasily.

The moment Iruka realized polices was standing his door, telling him they had something to say about his parents, the bad feeling from before came back to him and it really started to worry him.

"Uh, well, come in then" he stepped aside and the two adults entered the house, politely taking off their shoes.

All four of them walked into the living room and sat down, the two adults on two chairs at the side of the room and Iruka and Kakashi onto the sofa.

"My name is Toshie Danaka, but please just call me Dan, every one does," the man said and than pointed at his female companion "And this is Asha Nekita" she bowed slightly still quite uneasy.

"And might I ask who you are?" he asked Kakashi.

"Hatake Kakashi, just a friend" he said in a polite manner.

"So anyway, why are you here?" Iruka asked impatient having lost all his senses of politeness.

"Uh, well, I don't quite know how to say this, I've only been ordered to tell a few times before but there's no other way to say this different than to just spit it out," Dan looked serious and worried at the boys before him.

"I'm sorry to say this, but your parents have been in an car accident and didn't survived the crash" the man looked down, he hated to say these kind of things, especially to kids like the young brown-haired boy and his friend before him.

Iruka let a gasp escape his mouth and fixed his eyes on the window.

This can't be true! He told himself, as he looked wide-eyed at the slowly darkening sky outside, not a single tear coming even close to flowing. 

He wouldn't believe it! It was just some sick joke his parents were playing with him! He desperately awaited his parents to cheerfully walk inside and tell him it was all just a joke, just to trick him, but no one came.

He felt a slight hand touch the end of his shoulder, but he didn't care.

"Iruka?" a sympathetic voice whispered, the voice that belonged to the slight touch on his shoulder; Kakashi.

"B-but… th-that can't b-be tr-rue…" Iruka said in a rasping voice.

He was surprised by how husky his voice suddenly sounded and he quickly swallowed the lump that was forming in his throat.

"W-why coul-ldn't y-you peop-ple save th-them!" he now looked desperately at the man who hadn't lifted his face enough to look the boy in the eyes.

"They… they died instantly and there was nothing the ambulance crew could do about it" he said as quickly as he could.

"NO! YOU'RE LYING! THEY CAN'T BE DEAD! THIS IS ALL JUST SOME SICK JOKE!" Iruka suddenly yelled and spurted away from his company.

Upstairs, in his bed, underneath his covers, where the reality all seemed less serious, he began crying.

Soon after he had entered his room the door carefully opened. Kakashi slowly walked in and closed it. Iruka stopped crying and Kakashi heard muffed sobs coming from underneath the duvet.

He walked up to the bed, pulled away the duvet and laid down next to his friend.

Iruka was slightly surprised by this, but didn't resist, on the other hand; he welcomed his best friend with every little piece of gratitude he could manage to collect from his scrambled conscious.

Kakashi took Iruka in an embrace and whispered in his ear "You should cry now, there's nothing to be ashamed of, let it all out, don't bottle it up, it'll destroy you completely" he knew Iruka was holding the tears back because of him, but that didn't seemed right to Kakashi, Iruka needed to cry now and be comforted.

"Th-thanks" Iruka managed to get out between his heavy sobs and his quietly let himself cry.

There they lay, Iruka clinging to Kakashi for all the support Kakashi could offer. When crying turned to sobs again and the sobs quieted down, only the ensuring whispers of Kakashi were heard in the darkness on that fateful evening.  
After what seemed like an eternity, Iruka finally began to feel the exhaustion from everything what had happened in the past few hours, his eyes burned from all his tears, his mouth was dry and Kakashi's shoulder, were he had been crying on, was soaked, but he didn't cared anymore, about nothing.

All that he knew was that he was in pain, that he was exhausted and that he was being held by his best friend. Those were more than enough reasons for Iruka to float away from his conscious mind and take a long trip to the land of Nod.

Kakashi couldn't quite get to sleep and was awake most of the night, just holding his pained friend and feeling miserable for him. Although Kakashi knew the reason of their current position wasn't pleasant, the feeling of holding Iruka and being held by Iruka felt great to him. He knew he shouldn't even be thinking of this, especially not in such a horrible situation, but he just couldn't help to think about how great it was to have a friendship the way he and Iruka had. Finally the thought of their friendship was what drove Kakashi over the edge of consciousness and he fell into a deep slumber, even though it would only last for a short while.


	9. Chap 9 The stated invitation

A/N:

Hi?

Ah I feel so miserable about posting so very late! SORRY!I really meant to update sooner, but I had decided for my own sake that I would only continue posting ifI had a beta-reader. But lucky **Vicious-Loner** came to my help! Thank you so much for beta-reading my story Vicious! ... erm... I should stop now before you can't hold the weight of my load of thanks -.-;;

anyway I hope to update now once every 2 to 3 weeks -nods-

now for the reviewers:

**xCrAzYxGuRlx / jo**: yaayI know, but I just get totaly weak for these drama thingies iiiieeeehh... forget that... and I luv KurenaiXAsuma so that's why they just _have_ to be together haha. thanks about the vacation stuff and yes I had loads of fun ;;  
**shinycry** : -cries along- I already said this, but yaayI know he's soooo poor! and you just have to keep reading my story to know what's going to happen next! I won't tell anything -seals mouth with strongest seal one can find!-  
**CuriousDreamWeaver** : thanks for reviewing! and thanks for your compliment about my story -

last but not least: I just want to thank my grandfather cause he actually has gone to a publisher with my other story 'Frozen Time' andhe ordered about 10 books of it!  
it's not really good at all, at least not the grammar and spellings and all but I love it anyway! I Love You Grandpa!

that said, now on with the story, enjoy!

Kuraku

Chapter 9:

The stated invitation

Kakashi woke up from his few hours of sleep when Iruka was trying to get out of his arms in his troubled sleep, murmuring and struggling forcefully.

Kakashi let his friend go and quietly got out of the bed.

It was still dark outside and when Kakashi looked at Iruka little alarm clock he understood why; it wasn't even six o'clock yet. He watched his friend tossing and turning and all kinds of thoughts stirred his mind.

One questionable thought stood out from all the others; _what will happen to him now?_

When he heard sounds from downstairs he decided to let his former thoughts rest for a little while until he knew what the noises were as he went down to look.

When he entered the dark living room he saw Dan sleeping on the ground and Nekita on the sofa. The noise he had heard was Dan snoring loudly. He had forgotten that the two adults were still in the house.

He felt a yawn coming up and while yawning he stretched his tense muscles.

When he heard a few of his bones give a cracking sound he let them fall down in satisfaction.

I should take a shower, now that I'm already up he thought and followed up his idea. 

He knew that when Iruka would wake up, he would have to be there to support his friend, so he might as well be a little more relaxed than he now was.

He undressed in a slow pace and turned on the water, there was no to need to hurry, Iruka probably wouldn't wake up yet in a while.

As the hot water tickled his skin, he let his own feelings come to mind, his own sadness. After all, he had been closer to Iruka's parents than to his own. They were almost the parents he once had, but the days he had had those parents was long gone. Nowadays the arguments between them were starting to stir up again but with Taki, Kurai and Iruka supporting him, he never felt alone anymore. Though Iruka's parents didn't fully knew what truly was going on at his home, they did know he had some troubles with his parents and they had always been there for him, along with Iruka of course.

He smiled at the memories when they had been there for him and he felt pain sting his heart. The pain of loss.

Strangely enough, he couldn't bring up even one tear to flow. He had never lost anyone really close to him, but now, the loss just didn't feel real. Like it was some sort of weird nightmare. Like he would wake up any moment by his alarm clock screaming at him to get up, but he knew that that wasn't the truth. When the news got to him he had pushed all his emotions aside to survive that painful moment and to be able to support Iruka.

He couldn't even imagine how Iruka must've felt when the news struck him.

He himself was shocked to say the least, but for his best friend it had to been even worse. He had felt so obliged to support Iruka in this hard time, that without even thinking he had rushed off after Iruka, when he spurted away from the living room towards his bedroom.

The empty look in the deep brown eyes that he had seen only for a few seconds, were so different from before. He couldn't retrace any of his friend's cheerful self in them. Nothing, not even his shyness.

When he had washed and was a little more at peace, he turned off the water. He dried himself with a towel and got his old cloths back on, a loose white shirt, a pair of shorts and black jeans.

He dried his messy silver hair for the second time, just to make sure it wasn't too wet, so that the pillow he was gonna lie back on wouldn't get too soaked.

He didn't know what to do else, so he had decided to just go back to bed again, although he knew almost for certain that he wouldn't get any sleep. His body was aching for it, but his mind was set on Iruka and his parents and it wouldn't allow his body to go to sleep, since it had too many things to think about.

He silently entered the dark bedroom. The small blue rays of moonlight shone in through the window. The window wasn't covered by any kind of curtains, because the room hadn't been prepared for sleeping yet when Iruka entered last night.

Kakashi slowly reached Iruka's bed, as his own sleeping bag was still even downstairs.

He climbed in as carefully as he could, making sure not to wake his friend.

He laid down and began a train of thoughts about the events of last night, but was quickly interrupted.

Iruka had started mumbling and tossing and turning.

"Iruka…" Kakashi whispered as he laid one arm over Iruka's chest to get him calm down, though this only made Iruka struggle harder.

"Iruka, please wake up…" Kakashi almost begged in a whisper.

It was no use.

"Iruka, please…" Kakashi begged the struggling Iruka again.

Iruka tried hard to get away from any touch in the haunted nightmare he was currently having.

Kakashi held his friend tight, as he got kicks and strikes from all sides. He wouldn't let go, he couldn't let go. Iruka had done so much for him and he had promised he would pay him back.

"Please, Iruka…" it was barely a whisper, but as desperate as it could ever be.

And Iruka woke up, his eyes wide, fear flowing freely through them.

"Iruka?" Kakashi whispered as he held the now limp body of his friend tightly.

"Kakashi…" Iruka murmured. He felt the pain from the events of the night before come back again and that on top of his horrible nightmare he felt like he couldn't bare with everything anymore, but then there was Kakashi.

The same Kakashi he knew so well, the same Kakashi he had stood up for when they had just met, the same Kakashi who was always where the fun was.

It comforted him so much to just be able to lie there, protected and safe in his best friends' arms, crying over the great loss last night had brought.

Old tears flowed, new tears formed. Sobs filled the early morning's silence. Blue light shone over them and made Kakashi's pale skin look like white silk on a gloomy background. His silver hair seemed to almost glitter in the fairy-like beauty of the blue light from outside. It just all seemed so unreal except for the pain burning deep within his soul.

The pain was overwhelming even though he hadn't even fully gripped the situation yet. The sudden realisation finally hit him; he had lost his parents and there was no way to bring them back.

His quiet sobs got shoved away fiercely and he cried his heart out. Not caring who watched, not caring he was still in bed with his best friend, not caring he was crying like a newborn baby.

"It's okay Iruka, I'm here" a soft whisper made it through his loud crying.

His wet eyes looked up from where he was clinging desperately to the shirt of his silver-haired friend.

Kakashi's gentle gaze locked onto Iruka's pained one and that's how they stayed for many minutes. Neither one looking away, neither one caring how foolish they looked.

Their gazes finally got distracted by loud stumbles from the stairs.

The door flung open and Dan and Nekita were standing in doorframe. They both suddenly felt very uncomfortable and were fast to let each other go.

"What happened? We heard loud cries" Nekita asked worried.

Iruka looked away and although Kakashi couldn't see his face, he knew Iruka got a slap right in face from reality that instant.

"Iruka?" Kakashi asked, worry written all over his face.

Iruka didn't move or talked.

"Are you okay?" asked Dan.

Iruka still didn't move or talked, the only noise was the duvet half covering Iruka and Kakashi, moving slowly up and down by their breathings.

Kakashi laid his hand on the shoulder of his friend and it finally provoked a movement out of Iruka, but not a nice one, as he pushed the hand violently away. He then whipped his tears away and stood up, throwing his part of the duvet over Kakashi's head. The boy silently made his way out the bedroom and in the bathroom.

Kakashi wanted to follow him, but stopped, as he knew that Iruka was going to need some time alone now.

"What happened?" Kakashi asked beginning to feel terrible now too.

"What do you mean?" Nekita asked confused.

"What happened to his parents, how did they die exactly? I have a right to know, as his parents are closer to me as my own are" he looked seriously at them.

They heard stumbles on the hallway and only seconds later water getting turned on. "They… well they were driving around and… well, there apparently was this car… and, um… they pushed Iruka parents' car against the side of the road and, um… the car crashed with it's full speed against the crash barrier… like I said, they died instantly" Dan answered harshly.

He didn't like to put up that tone against such a young boy and certainly not about such a subject, but it was the only way he was able to tell the boy.

It surprised him that the silver-haired boy hadn't cried when the news struck him last night and that the boy could still put up such a cold face now. No emotions were visible and as hard as he tried to read the boy, it was no use.

"Kakashi, are you alright?" Nekita asked him worried and in response only got a nod.

"I'm glad they didn't have suffer" he said and the two grown-ups simply stared at him.

"Will you excuse me, I'll get dressed up and come out in a minute" Kakashi said as he threw the door in faces of Dan and Nekita.

Kakashi stood with his back against the door and let himself slide down.

One single tear made it's way down his soft cheek, but that was all he could manage to let go.

He had given up on crying a long time ago. When he hadn't met Iruka yet, when his life was still a lonely hell, when he would cry all day or night long about his parents' arguments.

But he felt like that time was over, Iruka and his parents had brought peace to his troubled mind. He at that very moment promised that in tribute to Iruka's parents he would not let another tear drop down his cheeks.

He pulled himself off the ground and undressed from his old cloths into the new cloths he had brought along: a dark sap green pair of trousers, a black shirt and his dark sneakers.

He slowly moved downstairs and saw Nekita and Dan sitting in the kitchen.

The sight of the kitchen suddenly made his stomach grumble loud. He had totally forgotten he still hadn't eaten anything.

He walked near the fridge and pulled it open looking inside for something edible.

"What are you doing kid?" Dan asked as he turned to look at the boy.

"Looking for food" he said irritated by the man.

"What for?"

"I haven't eaten anything since lunch yesterday."

"Oh" Dan said and turned back around.

"Can't you ever act like a normal living human instead of a cold zombie" Nekita scolded her companion as she stood up. "Here, let me make you something nice."

She walked over to Kakashi who walked away firmly, letting her show that he did not need any sympathetic looks or treatments.

_If anyone needs some special care right now, it'll be Iruka, not me_ he told himself harshly as he sat down at the kitchen table.

By now the shower had turned into some kind of sauna as Iruka was overloading his body with the hot droplets coming from the showerhead.

His mind was empty, like his heart. It was like his whole damn world had suddenly decided to fall apart and all that right in front of his very eyes.

It was beginning to feel more and more realistic and less like a dream.

He let his head hang low and his wet hair followed the movement his head made. The hot water now trickled down his neck, his shoulder blades, spine, rear and further down his legs until it flowed away through the drain.

Iruka pulled his feet over the drain and the water couldn't drain away. It started to fill the bathtub, since the shower was built in the tub.

His wet hair was hanging around his face like a curtain and it made him feel a little better. He could see his mother's sad smile upon his own face as he looked at the reflection in the filling water below him in the tub. No matter where his parents had now gone too, they would always be there in his heart and within his genetic features.

He suddenly had enough of showering and turned off the water.

He slowly dried himself, got dressed but let his hair hang loose. When he exited the bathroom a familiar aroma filled his nose, the aroma of flapjacks. He followed the smell that led him into the kitchen, where Kakashi was about to begin on a whole pile of the small pancakes until he saw his pained friend.

Their gazes met and Iruka got lost in the dark eyes of his silver-haired friend, until Nekita spoke up.

"Um, would you like some flapjacks too Iruka-kun?"

Iruka looked up and nodded, lips a straight line.

She wondered how the two children could ever stay so cold, although she knew both of them must've been in horrible pains.

Iruka sat down and the boys shared Kakashi's pile of flapjacks.

After another shared pile of flapjacks, Iruka stood up.

"What will happen to me now?" he asked the two adults

"Um, we'll have to look if there are any remained relatives of you who wants to take care of you" Nekita answered, she looked worried at how cold Iruka was still acting.

"Don't trouble yourself, I know my parents will be happy to adopt Iruka" Kakashi suddenly spoke.

"Kakashi…" Iruka whispered out, as he was a little taken back by the words.

"I… well, I think we first have to talk that over with your parents"

"Fine, but as long as it takes to get Iruka a home, I demand he stays with me" he said firmly, letting Dan and Nekita know that there was nothing on the whole planet that could change his mind now.

Suddenly Iruka turned and began to exit the kitchen.

"Iruka where…" Dan began to ask but was cut off.

"I'm going to pack my stuff" he interrupted and with that he was gone.

Kakashi felt stronger now, Iruka trusted his judgement and was following his lead.

He left the kitchen to go look up his own bag, and although it was only just seven o'clock, there was nothing left in the house but memories. That was something neither of them needed right at that moment.

"I hope they'll be fine…" Nekita wished aloud, as she looked at the doorframe were only a second ago two pained boys had walked through.

"Me too…" Dan whispered in response, though he really was talking to anyone in particular.

"We can stay longer if you like" Kakashi whispered to his friend as they stood before the little cosy house of the Umino household.

"It's okay" Iruka turned as he faked a smile and Kakashi looked worriedly back at him.

With their bags packed they began to walk towards Kakashi's home.

Dan and Nekita had gone off because they still had important things to do, but not after the two boys had urged them to go and told them they would be fine.

They walked in silence, both lost in thoughts and with nothing to say it stayed quiet for about the whole trip until suddenly Iruka broke the silence with quite a pressing question.

"I-I…" he swallowed the new forming lump in his throat. "This morning I heard your question about my p-p… you know, how they died…?" Kakashi was a little surprised by the suddenly question.

"Yes" he looked down.

"Will you tell me?" Kakashi nodded, but in his mind he absolutely didn't want to tell, it was still so heavy on him and to tell his friend felt like a huge weight had settled itself upon his already burdened shoulders.

"They said there was this other car that pushed them to the side of the road and they crashed into the barrier" Kakashi said quietly in a guilty manner.

He hated the fact that his friend had chosen him to tell him this hard piece of information and therefore felt guilty that because of his words Iruka would feel even worse.

Iruka only nodded and though Kakashi couldn't see his face, as he was still looking down, he knew for certain that the news had hurt the brunet even more.

The rest of the way they stayed quiet and at Kakashi's house they just dumped their bags in the hallway.

For the rest of the day they stayed in the house watching TV, until the doorbell interrupted them.

A/N:

hope you like this new chappi, please review!


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